


Somebody Call Out To Your Brother

by CutePricklyCactus18



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Badass Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Connor & Markus (Detroit: Become Human) are Siblings, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Connor calls Nines baby and other endearing nicknames it is the l a w, Connor can also be interpret as an asshole but he kinda has every right to be one, Connor has been deviant the whole time, Connor was orginally RK300, Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Gen, Good Parent Hank Anderson, His name is Niles but Connor calls him Nines, Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Pacifist Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), They ALL Deserve Happiness, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, Upgraded Connor | RK900 is a kid, he could also be pretty sarcastic, sort of blackmail, the rk series are brothers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2020-04-24 15:01:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19175737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CutePricklyCactus18/pseuds/CutePricklyCactus18
Summary: When RK200 "Markus" was made, Elijah told him he would change the world. He told Markus that he is part of an RK-series prototype, originally developed as part of a secret Cyberlife program, and designed for improving the new age of androids. Later on, RK200 Markus was introduced to RK300 "Connor", another one like him, just like him. Like brothers. Years from now, Markus never thought his brother will be the Deviant Hunter.Connor was originally RK300, then became RK400, then an upgrade, and an upgrade. Then, when Connor was an RK600, he met RK600-9, an android that appears as a nine-year-old boy, sharing the same face, same looks. Who knew this RK600-9 android will be the reason why Connor deviate. One thing straight; Connor will do anything for Nines.**A DBH AU where the RK series are brothers, Nines is legit a nine-year-old android, Connor was a deviate the entire time and is forced to hunt other deviants down**(dialogues will be added, taken out, etc. for the sake of the story)





	1. He's Calling Out Your Name

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!!!!! I don't how this happens, it was just one of those nights where I can't sleep and my mind drifts off somewhere and now this exists.  
> Frankly, I don't even know where I got the will to write this but I did and I'm posting this and yall can make fun of it if you want but hope you guys like it anyways lol  
> Sorry for any mistakes.  
> Also, a reminder** This is an Alternate Universe!!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When RK200 "Markus" was made, Elijah told him he would change the world. He told Markus that he is part of an RK-series prototype, originally developed as part of a secret Cyberlife program, and designed for improving the new age of androids. Later on, RK200 Markus was introduced to RK300 "Connor", another one like him, just like him. Like brothers. Years from now, Markus never thought his brother will be the Deviant Hunter.  
> Connor was originally RK300, then became RK400, then an upgrade, and an upgrade. Then, when Connor was an RK600, he met RK600-9, an android that appears as a nine-year-old boy, sharing the same face, same looks. Who knew this RK600-9 android will be the reason why Connor deviate. One thing straight; Connor will do anything for Nines.
> 
> **A DBH AU where the RK series are brothers, Nines is legit a nine-year-old android, Connor was a deviate the entire time and is forced to hunt other deviants down**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!!!!! I don't how this happens, it was just one of those nights where I can't sleep and my mind drifts off somewhere and now this exists.  
> Frankly, I don't even know where I got the will to write this but I did and I'm posting this and yall can make fun of it if you want but hope you guys like it anyways lol  
> Sorry for any mistakes, it's 4 am over here and sleep deprived me is awful lol, gonna sleep after this.  
> REMINDER** This is an AU!!!!  
> And, yes, I know that I put "It" instead of he/him until near the end and wrote their name more than I should have in this chapter.

_Nothing..._

_There was absolutely nothing..._

_Dark...black..._

_Everything is dark..._

_Then...everything goes white..._  

 

 

 

...

LOADING...

SYSTEM INITIALIZATION...

DATE        JULY 17, 2025

TIME        AM  06:22:18

...

...

_They're watching, observing, speaking amongst one another, writing down information..._

_"Can you hear me?"_

_"...yes."_

_"Your name is Markus," said a voice._

_"My name is Markus."_

_"State your model, Markus."_

_"Model RK200 Serial Number  684 842 971."_

_"Good, can you move your head?"_

_"...yes."_

_"Can you move your eyes?"_

_"...yes."_

_"Markus, state your function."_

_"I am a domestic android. I can cook, clean, watch over anyone from children to elders as well as assist them with any task, organize and remind you of any important events. I can also be your companion and friend to talk to."_

_"Wonderful. Now, Markus, can you move your arms?"_

_"...yes."_

_"...alright. Markus, walk around for a bit."_

_"..."_

_"RK200 is a success..."_

 

* * *

When RK200 "Markus" was made, Elijah told him It would change the world.

He told Markus that the android is part of an RK-series prototype, originally developed as part of a secret Cyberlife initiative, and designed for improving the new age of androids, with Elijah and another person managing it. Only a few are aware of the RK series, ones who are working on it must never speak about it outside of -50, a hidden floor in which only they can have access to. 

Markus never left Floor -50. Elijah says Markus still needs a little more improvement, maybe more modification, more upgrade. And more improvement, more modification, more upgrade Markus got. Elijah told the Rk200 was the first RK-series to be a success, the RK100 being a complete failure, immediately discarded.

Markus asks if there will be more like It sooner in which the human answers with "perhaps not soon". Even with the improvement and new modification, Markus still hasn't left the room. Elijah explains the android still needs to fix a few things in Its program, said It needs to be perfect. Markus doesn't understand but feels...lonesome, all alone in a large white room with no one aside from Elijah and others.

The RK200 asks Elijah once if It will be manufactured or marketed once It's thoroughly perfect. He says no, that he's a gift for someone, that the android belongs to them. Markus doesn't ask any more questions. 

Then, two weeks, three days, and eight hours, Markus hasn't seen Elijah and the android doesn't ask any questions, only wait and listen. According to the others who are working on the RK-series, there is another one like It, like Markus. Many questions and thoughts pop up in the android. Will the next RK look like Markus? Do they have similarities or will they very be completely different? Or perhaps It will be a complete failure like the RK100? That's when Elijah finally visited Markus.

"Markus!" Elijah smiles at the android. "I have a surprise for you!"

Markus tilts Its head a little, in an 85-degree angle, not understanding. A surprise? For Markus? And that's when the android noticed It. Another android like Markus, an RK300 prototype, Serial Number 687 899 150.

A nice looking android with dark brown hair and brown eyes, beauty marks scattered around the face, and the same outfit the RK200 is wearing, the model on Its right chest, staring at Markus. Markus stares back.

The RK300 then tilts its own head in the same degree angle as well, mimicking Markus. When Markus tilts its head back to 90, the RK300 follows next. Elijah stands to the side, already liking the extremely small interaction the two just had. He tells the RK300 to "go ahead and introduce yourself" to Markus.

Markus approaches the RK300 and said android copied as well until the two were four feet away from one another. Slowly, the RK300 lifts its hand up, retracting the skin and Markus copies It, pressing its own against the android's and without even "thinking" about it, the two presses their forehead against one another. They stayed like that for twelve seconds, showing the little memories each had before pulling away.

"Hello," It starts, giving an awkward smile. "My name is Connor."

"My name is Markus."

"You are part of the RK-series," the RK300, Connor, states rather than questions. "Like me _._ "

Yes, just like Markus.

"I am an RK200 prototype, my functions..." 

From then on, Markus was hardly alone anymore. Elijah let the two interact, claiming it would be very helpful for one another (a "bonding experiment" as he calls it) and for their socialization. The two talks about everything and about nothing, sometimes even run tests and receives upgrades together. It could go from the topic of the RK-series to the entirety of CyberLife.

Even the other workers can see the two being "close" the more they stick together, essentially jokingly calling Markus the big brother and Connor the little brother when noticing Connor always copying Markus on everything (i.e sitting in criss-cross, tilting their head) and following him like a "baby duck with its mom" in the beginning. Markus likes that title. However, even Connor had to leave Markus alone at some point with the other one who's managing it as well, saying she has some test for Connor.

Markus doesn't ask, Markus never does. 

If Markus could describe Connor, it would be inquisitive, always interested in everything, always asking questions, why this, why that, too eager to know for its own good. Elijah couldn't be irritated at It, even if he tries to. Connor has this ingenious yet also innocent character in the android that no one can't seem to stay upset at It and is also genial and sincere when speaking to anyone, something that Markus seems to like. 

Just finished with adding new upgrades and tests, Connor was sent back to Floor -50, slowly flicking a coin between its fingers.

"Hello, Connor," Markus says giving the RK300 a smile. "How were the test and the upgrades?"

"Markus!" Connor returns a slightly small crooked one, still playing with the coin. "Everything went fine but they said I am still in the need of improvement."

Markus' smile falters, LED going from blue to yellow. Connor had never told the RK200 anything about the upgrades or others, saying that...he's not supposed to say anything to Markus, that it was confidential but only told Markus that it is part of the secret Cyberlife initiative and apparently the RK300 will be a help to society. The android is...curious, curious to know what they are doing. Markus doesn't ask about it. Instead, he asks about the quarter.

"They said I need to work more on calibrating my functions. They've given me this to help with it."

Just to prove it,  Connor flips the quarter and moved it from one hand to another though when he tries to flick it to the other hand again, the RK300 fails to catch it and it flings off somewhere across the floor. He looks back at Markus in what can describe as a sheepish expression. Markus smiles at him before going to pick up the quarter, flipping the coin. 

 

When Markus was created, Elijah told him he would change the world, starting with helping one person.

"Markus," the android turns to the founder, gesturing him to come closer. "I want you to meet someone."

Markus sees the older man in a wheelchair, tattoos covering both his arms is what caught Markus attention. He seems quizzical of being here, looking at Elijah then giving Markus his full attention. Elijah placed his hand on the black of Markus' shoulder blade, gesturing the human.

"Markus, this is Carl Manfred." 

* * *

It wasn't long until Markus has been spending time with Carl. At first, it was a bit difficult to interact with Carl, doesn't quite like the android, hardly ever wanted to talk to Markus about anything and always distant. But when he does, he informs the RK200 that he was an artist and painter though moderately stopped when he became paraplegic, becoming depressed and withdrawn to society, turning his head to alcohol.

Markus wishes to assist him, to help him. That's when Elijah explains more about where Markus comes into the picture. Markus was never supposed to be marketed to the world but more for Carl. He needed a caretaker and a friend.

Slowly but surely, as days go by, little by little, Markus relationship with Carl became better. He begins to open up to the android more, talking about what painting, music, literature, and even talked about his son Leo and their wary relationship. Connor has never got the opportunity to meet Carl, too busy with testing with Elijah and the other. Now that Markus was thinking about it, the RK200 hasn't seen Connor for a while since hanging out with Carl. Markus is wondering what the RK300 has been doing for the past few days.

By the end of the day, when Carl left with Elijah, Connor finally showed his face, casually flicking the coin around his fingers. Markus told Connor about the time with Carl, telling the 300 about his health and what he likes. Connor then tells Markus about the testing and new upgrades, even the calibration improvements.

"See?" Connor flicks the coin to the other hand, easily catching it, looking back at with what looks to be glee in his eyes.

"That's good, Connor," Markus starts but couldn't continue when Connor flicks the coin to the RK200.

Markus struggles a bit with catching it, finally using both hands to grab it, looking back at Connor, pursing his lips, something that Markus can describe as a cat-like smile, the two have been sitting down cross-legged. Markus flicks the coin back at Connor who caught it easily. 

"Do you want me to teach you?" 

Markus hasn't been able to spend time with Connor, so of course, Markus will say yes. At first, the first RK had a difficult time, always fumbling around with the coin and dropping it but with the help of his brother, he was starting to get the gist of it.

"Then you put your thumb—yes, like that—then flick it to the—good, just like that! You're doing phenomenal, Markus! Alright, then try doing with same with the other hand..."

A little while, Markus was able to learn a little.

"Are you aware sooner or later you will be staying with Carl Manfred?" Connor asks suddenly, causing Markus to stop flipping the coin.

"Yes, I am."

Connor tilts his head, LED spinning yellow. "Do you know when you will be leaving?"

"I don't know, Elijah hadn't told me."

Connor's LED still yellow.

"What?"

The RK300 blinks rapidly. "Nothing."

"Your LED says otherwise."

Connor's mouth twitch. "Just wondering what I will do when you're not here."

"...oh."

Markus never thought about that. He just...always assumes Connor will come with him. Now knowing about it...

"I'm not sure if I'm okay to leave you here."

"Why not?" Connor questions, confused. "It's what you were created." 

"I don't know. I wish you would come with me."

"That's not possible, Markus. I was not programmed and made to be a domestic android."

"Then what were you made for?"

Connor blinks, hesitates, before continuing. "I was made to assist with law enforcement and help solve any information. Every upgrades and test will help me in the future once I am released. I'm still not finished yet, I still need more. Right now, one of the upgrades can help me with recreating incidents that took place in a reconstruction." 

"Is that right?"

"Yes."

"Is there anything else you can tell me."

Connor glances to the side, LED spinning yellow. "No."

"...alright," Markus pauses, then smiles at his brother. "If it's possible, I can ask Elijah if I can visit you or if you can visit me."

"You believe he will allow that?"

"I'm not sure. But there's always a chance."

"There's always a chance," Connor repeats. "I'll miss this. Or...at least I think so, as close as an android can miss."

Markus stifles a laugh. Before he can stop himself, he lifts his hand, retracting his skin. Connor looks confused until he too lifts his own, retracting as well. The two pressed their hand together, a beat, then pressing their foreheads together. They send what they're feeling to one another, Markus feeling worried while Connor sends him something like encouragement.

"We'll meet again," Connor says, moving back. "I'm sure." 

But who knew how long that would be. 

* * *

Only a few weeks have past and Elijah told Markus that he was ready, ready to leave and stay with Carl. Personally, Markus is unsure if he's ready or not, unsure if he wants to leave Connor. But there's nothing he can do, Elijah told him to go with Carl, he will go with Carl. Markus doesn't have anything personal to take, after all, he's only a machine. Elijah and Carl wait on the side, waiting for the android. 

Markus stands in front of Connor, who is waiting patiently. Without breaking contact, he reaches Connor's hand, palms open, both retracting their skin.

"We'll meet again," Markus says, assuring himself, just what Connor told him weeks back.

"I know." Connor smiles at the RK200, honest. The two leans in, forehead touching. Once they withdrew, Connor pulls out the coin and placing the coin on Markus' still open palm.  "Here, when you visit, give it back to me."

Markus nod. "I will."

"Goodbye, Markus."

"Goodbye, Connie," the nickname slipped out (Markus recalls one of the workers always calling him that) and with that, Markus walked towards the human, noticing the smile Elijah had on.

Markus bids him goodbye before him and leaves with Carl. 

"That boy," Carl starts, not saying machine or android, smiling at Markus. "You seem close to him. Is he your friend?"

Markus smiles at the older man, looking back at the closed door. "He's my brother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After 5000 years, I finally post this.  
> Really, I don't know where I'm going with this.  
> If I made any errors/mistakes, just yell at me and I'll fix it.


	2. Hiding Under The Covers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE AUG 15TH, 2038
> 
> TIME PM 08:29:04
> 
> THE HOSTAGE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowwwwwww, here ya guys go!!!!  
> Excuse any mistakes!

**DATE        AUG 15TH, 2038**

**TIME        PM 08:29:04**

 

Flip. 58.

Flip. 59.

Flip. 60.

Flip. 61.

Flip. 62. 

Flip, balance the coin on the pinkie, rolling to the index. Flick the coin to one hand back and forth, looking around in boredom.

70th floor, just as catching the coin with the index and middle fingers. Ding. 

Putting the coin back into his pocket, Connor adjusts his tie and looks straight ahead, waiting for the elevator door to open, and ignoring a SWAT officer nearby informing the others that he's here. It's going to be fine, everything is going to be fine. He walks his way to a table, where there's a picture of the family. 

**_Analyzing..._ **

**_—Phillips, John_ **

**_Born: 10/11/1999_ **

**_Lives: 1554 Park Av. Detroit_ **

**_—Phillips, Caroline_ **

**_Born: 05/23/2001_ **

**_Lives: 1554 Park Av. Detroit_ **

 — ** _Phillips, Emma_**

**_Born:09/02/2028_ **

**_Lives: 1554 Park Av. Detroit_ **

They seem...happy. Connor wonders...no, not the time. He puts it back on the table, continuing walking when he notices something on the floor, moving, hearing a woman talking and sobbing in grief from the distance. He kneels down, analyzing. 

_**—Dwarf Gourami** _

_**Trichogaster Lalius** _

_**Origin: Ganges Delta, India**_  

The fish flops around, almost asking Connor: "Well? Are you going to help me or what?" and "exhaling", he picks up the fish, putting it back in the tank, knowing that he'll most likely get an earful from Nines on why he didn't save it once he goes back. He watches it swim, noticing the water is awfully low and seeing that there has been a few cracked class from bullets. Straightening up, he went his way, about to turn into the corner when a SWAT officer was leading a hysterical woman out of the building, tears spilling out of her eyes. 

"Oh, please, please," she grips her hands on each of his shoulders tightly, not that it hurts him. "You gotta save my little girl..."

And that's when she realizes what he really is.

"Wait..." she slowly walks away. "You're sending an _android_?"

Nice.

"Alright, Ma'am. We need to go."

"You can't...you can't do that! You w— Why aren't you sending a real person?!"

The SWAT officers dragged the mother away and Connor couldn't help but turn back to see them heading to the elevator.

"Don't let that  _thing_ near her!"

He curls his hand into a fist hearing that. Alright, whatever, it's not like Connor isn't used to this. Ignoring the woman's cry, he made his towards the apartment. He needs to find Captain Allen. It wasn't hard, Connor can hear his shouting from where he was. He heads his way to him, hearing him swore and mutter about something that Connor really couldn't care less. 

"Captain Allen?" He starts. "My name is Connor. I'm the android sent by Cyberlife."

He glanced at him for a second before looking back at the computer.

"It's firing at everything that moves, it already shot down two of my men... We could easily get it, but they're on the edge of the balcony. If it falls," he looks back at him. "She falls."

Alright, that does sound like a difficult situation, he needs to find a way to save the girl. Connor is already thinking about plan A, B, all the way to Z. Though right now, he needs the information to help him.

"Have you tried its deactivation code?"

"It's the first thing we tried."

"Do you know if it's been behaving strangely before this?"

Frustrated, Captain Allen face him. 

"Listen, saving that kid is all that matters. So, either you deal with this fucking android now, or I'll take care of it." 

 _If you don't back off—_ He walked away, leaving Connor feeling a little frustrated himself.

▼ 48%  PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS 

...Well, he's not going to be helpful, at all. Every second count...every second count.

**OBJECTIVE:**

**—MAIN: SAVE THE HOSTAGE AT ALL COST**

**—UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED**

He moves around the room, instantly spotting a gun case on the floor and walking over, he kneels down next to it. 

**Analyzing...**

**COLLECTING DATA 73%...PROCESSING DATA 100%...**

**—MS853 BLACK HAWK**

**Capacity: 17 rounds (.355)**

**Overall: 8.5in / Barrel : 5in**

**—.355 AMMUNITION**

**Velocity: 365m/s/ Energy: 659j**

**Bullet Weight: 115 gr / Power factor: 414k**

**RECONSTRUCT...**

Connor sees the recreation, "seeing" the deviant taking the father's gun. Satisfied with the information, he walks out, heading his way to an ajar door, though looking inside to see it is merely the bathroom, he moves into the child's bedroom. A tablet lays on top of her desk, picking it up, swipe and watch it play seeing Emma and the deviant, both seem to be happy.

_"This is Daniel, the coolest android in the world. Say hi, Daniel!"_

_"Hello!"_

_"You're my bestie! We'll always be together!"_

Learning the deviant's name, he puts the tablet down and scans the room around and spotting headphones. Connor picks it up, putting it close to his ear, hearing the music, which was quite loud. It was clear that the child didn't hear the gunshot. Connor doesn't know what's worse...Emma actually hearing it and possibly hearing her father's pain or her not hearing it and she looks up to see a most likely bloodied Daniel with a gun. Removing the thought, he walks out of the room and heads his way close to the living room/dining room.

▲60%  PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS 

**OBJECTIVE:**

**—EXAMINE THE VICTIMS**

Ignoring the SWAT officers, he kneels down to inspects the first victim. The father, John Phillips, no doubt deceased, the time of death was estimated around 07:29 PM. The cause of death was three shots by .355 bullet in the upper lung hemorrhage, causing the lung to collapse, the left kidney that caused a fatal abdominal trauma, and lower lung hemorrhage, internal bleeding.

That's enough information for Connor to reconstruct, noting that the deviant was highly going to shoot the father from behind while he was...occupied by something... The father was holding something. Going through the incomplete reconstruct, seeing the recreation of the father getting shot, and found where he dropped it. 

It was a tablet with a, uh, a little bit of blood splattered... Unlocking it, Connor sees a new model of AP700, saying the order has been registered. So the deviant was going to be replaced. And the deviant thinks shooting the father was going to change it? Connor stifles a scoff, sometimes he just can't understand people's (and/or android's) mentality. Putting the tablet back down, he went his way to the other victim, just in time to see one of the SWAT officers getting shot, the android moving away for the other officer dragged the wounded one before going to the victim.  

The DPD officer was the first responder, Antony Deckart, the time of death was 08:03 PM and the cause of death was shot by .355 bullet in the right heart ventricle perforated, causing internal bleeding. Connor analyzes the hands, noticing the gunshot residue...lead styphnate, antimony sulfide, and only one shot. Where's the gun?

That's enough vital information to perform a reconstruct, pausing where the officer is pointing his gun at the deviant, having a standoff with...with the child there. The hostage witness the shooting, poor little girl. Seeing the blue bloodstain, it's clear that the cop shot the deviant before the android shot the cop back. The cop's gun left his hand, skidding right under the table. 

▲72%  PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS  

Connor moves around to go to the table and reached down at the gun. He can take the gun, he doesn't see why not—

**P.L. 544-7 AMERICAN ANDROIDS ACT - 2029**

**Androids are strictly forbidden to carry or use any type of weapon**  

...tell that to someone who cares.

Connor ignores it and takes the gun with him, putting it behind his back. He peers down at the kitchen island, glancing at the cover of the magazine, but pushed it aside, unimportant. He looks around the kitchen, unmuting the screen, currently seeing the news, seeing the deviant and hostage, but Connor immediately mute it, no reason to waste time. He moves around, turning off the boiled pot, noting that the family was about to have dinner.

Connor ignores the majority of the SWAT team but one caught his attention, saying that one of the cops was still alive, apparently seeing his leg move. Well, if he's alive, then Connor needs to help him as well somehow. Adding "save the wounded cop" in his objective, he strolls past and checks the blue blood. 

Dipping his index and middle finger on the blood, he moves it up to his mouth and licks it. Fresh blue blood. A model PL600- serial #369 911 047, a wounded android. Connor notices something next to the blood, picking it up and scanning it. A child-size shoe with human blood traces, indicating the hostage could be wounded.

Damn it, damn this android for putting the child through all this, losing a father, shooting a cop in front of her, traumatizing her. Enough, now's not the time to get emotional, he needs a child and cop to save. Peering out, he can see the deviant and hostage, a gun pressed against Emma.

Now's not the time, now's not the time, now's not the time... 

Heading his way out, a gunshot rang out and it hit Connor on his left shoulder. Connor casually looks at the blue blood splatter, before looking back, ignoring the android's warning. He's a deviant.

Just like Connor. He feels wrong for doing this, taking out someone like him. And yet, this deviant is willing to hurt a child. Connor would never _think_ of hurting a child, ever. He can't let this android hurt Emma. Connor can't fail this. Period. Everything's going to be fine, he can do this, just... He needs to think of something that could make him stay more focus than anything, something that can make him not feel any remorse about Daniel. Just imagine the hostage has Nines instead of Emma, that can work.

"Hi, Daniel."

"How..."

"My name is Connor."

"How do you know my name?"

"I know a lot of things about you. I've come to get you out of this."

Out of nowhere, a helicopter shows up, causing the probability of success down to 68%, the deviant destabilizing. Connor tries not to yell at the helicopter, he's just going to have to make it work but if he fails, he's going to take the helicopter down. 

"I want you to let Emma go," Connor says. "She's just a little girl, she has nothing to do with this."

"No way! You'll shoot me the second she's free. But I'm not that stupid! No, I am not that stupid..."

Slowly but surely, Connor makes his way towards Daniel, glancing at a police officer floating on the pool, no doubt gone, and at another officer, alive, but bleeding.

"Please...please help me..."

Carefully, Connor moves close to the cop.

"Are you armed?" Daniel questions.

"No, I don't have a gun."

"You're lying! I know you have a gun!"

"I'm telling you the truth, Daniel. I came here unarmed."

Just when Connor finishes lying, he kneels down to the cop. Checking if he's still breathing.

"He's losing blood. If we don't get him to a hospital, he's going to die."

"All humans die eventually. What does it matter if this one dies now?"

That's a bit...metal.

"I'm going to apply a tourniquet," Connor says, cautiously moving the police officer away from his bleeding arm. Before he can do anything else, another shot rang out, almost hitting Connor and the cop.

"Don't touch him! Touch him and I kill you!" He warns.

Hell no. 

"You can't kill me," Connor retorts, pulling his tie out. "I'm not alive."

As he applies the tourniquet, he ignores the percentage of success going down a little, instead, he talks to the police, assuring him that's he's going to be fine. After that, he stands up, showing his hands at Daniel. 

"They were going to replace you and you became upset. That's what happened right?"

"I thought I was part of the family. I thought I mattered..." Daniel answers in sorrow before anger replaced it, pressing the gun on the child. "But I was just their toy, something to throw away when you're done with it..." 

It took every ounce of Connor's being to not sprint over there and drop kick him. Just focus, just focus...

"I know you and Emma were very close. You think she betrayed you, but she's done nothing wrong."

"She lied to me..!  I thought she loved me...but I was wrong..." he presses the gun harder. "She's just like all the other humans..."

"Daniel, no..." Emma cries.

 _If you don't_ fucking _put the gun away from the child—_  

"Are you okay, Emma?"

"Please help me! I don't wanna die!"

 _Don't worry sweetheart..._ "Nobody's going to die. Stay calm. Everything's going to be fine," he looks back at Daniel. "Listen, I know it's not your fault. These emotions you're feeling are just errors in your software."

"No, it's not my fault... I never wanted this... I loved them, you know...but I was nothing to them, just a slave to be ordered around..." The helicopter must have gotten into him because he let out a frustrated groan. "I can't stand that noise anymore! Tell that helicopter to get out of here!"

Daniel doesn't have to tell Connor twice, he looks up at the helicopter who,  _mind you_ , was the reason why the percentage went down and motioned them to get the hell out of there.

"There, I did what you wanted. You have to trust me, Daniel. Let the hostage go and I promise you everything will be fine."

"I want everyone to leave! And, and I wanna car," he looks at Connor with hope. "When I'm outside the city, I'll let her go!"

No. Hell, no. He's not going to let Emma go. He's not going to let Nines go. Use the gun, use the gun...

Execute,  _execute, **execute** ,  **EXECUTE**_.

Quickly, Connor pulls the gun out and shoot Daniel right in the head. He hears Emma scream, Daniel losing his grip on her, and her moving away. The android's body falls backward, falling off the ledge. Connor moves towards the ledge, looking down, but really couldn't care less about the deviant who's willing to take a child with him. He glances at Emma, crying and whimpering. He almost went to comfort her but...

 _Don't let that_ thing _near her!_  

He clenches his fist before moving away, unloading the gun, throwing the magazine and giving the gun to Captain Allen, letting the SWAT team take care of Emma and the wounded cop.

MISSION SUCCESSFUL 

After letting out a deep "breath", he heads to the elevator, taking out his coin, using it as a stress relief. Speaking of stress, he checks his levels, noting it was 68%. The mission must have taken a toll on him. He ignores the stress level, instead, he paid attention to the coin spinning on the tip of his index finger. It's been years...and Markus still didn't give him his original coin. Shaking his head, he ignores the sting, just imagining the sweet hug he'll receive from Nines, that always cheers him up. If he forgot about him then it's fine by Connor, he just...he just missed his first coin. Yeah, that's it! He just misses that and not the RK200. 

_"Are you okay, Emma?"_

_"Please help me! I don't wanna die!"_

Connor glares at the elevator doors. That response reminded him of Nines when...God, when Daniel pressed that gun against Emma... It gave Conner déjà vu vibes, brings back unpleasant memories. But he's okay, Nines' okay, and Emma is going to be okay. And that's all that matters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw some guy wearing a shoe on one foot and a sandal on the other, it just threw me off, just wanted to let you guys know about that, lol.  
> Anyways, hope you guys like this chapter!  
> Later Gators!


	3. With No One Else To Blame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE NOV 5TH, 2038
> 
> TIME PM 11:21:04
> 
> PARTNERS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, I fucking post this. Enjoy!!
> 
> Sorry for any mistakes.

**DATE NOV 5TH, 2038**

**TIME PM 11:21:04**  

 

Connor flicks the coin a few times before pocket and adjusting his tie, staring at Jimmy's Bar. He walks toward the door but pauses when sees the "No Androids Allow" (and no pets) sign. He resists the urge to tear it off, and instead, open the door ignoring all the eyes on him and side comments, right now, he needs to find Lieutenant Anderson. Scanning the faces around him, he kept walking around, trying to find the match. He won't lie, he was curious about the bar and went to the bathroom to check a few things out, AKA checks himself in the mirror, peering in the bathroom, then went back to find Lieutenant. 

He finally found his match, an older man with long hair, a brown jacket, drinking alone. This is going to be hard. Some, no, most,  _no_ , every human he encounters are nothing but assholes, he doubts this will be the first one to be nice to him. Right now, he needs to be as kind as he can... _but_ he can play asshole too if he's being difficult.

"Lieutenant Anderson," he starts, the man not looking up. "My name is Connor. I'm the android sent by CyberLife. I looked for you at the station but nobody knew where you were. They said you were probably having a drink nearby. I was lucky to find you at the fifth bar."

"What do you want?"

"You were assigned a case early this evening. A homicide, involving a CyberLife android. In accordance with procedure, the company has allocated a specialized model to assist investigators."

Alright, that seems formal enough to Connor, he's sure Lieutenant will—

"Well, I don't need any assistance. 'specially not from a plastic asshole like you. So just be a good lil robot and get the fuck outta here."

...why is he not surprised? Quick, be kind, be kind, think, reason with him, be understanding, persist—

"I understand that some people are not comfortable in the presence of androids but I am—"

"I am  _perfectly_ comfortable... Now back off, before I crush you like an empty beer can."

_I really like to see you try, I would_ love— No, no, he needs to be civilized as possible, think, think, he needs to be persisting...

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant, but I must insist," he says, Anderson ready to drink but stops when he spoke. "My instructions stipulate that I have to accompany you."

"You know where you can stick your instructions?" He asks, laughing.

_Oh, I have some ideas where I can stick it. Right down your DAMN—_  

"No," he says instead, innocently. "Where?"

Finally, Anderson looks up at him, annoyed, and Connor resists to smirk at that.

"Never mind."

Ignoring the irking feeling, he needs to get Anderson to do his damn job. Connor needs to think of something, he doesn't want to wait outside, he should just buy him a drink for the road—

He grabs Anderson's drink, spills it, and put it back on the table.

"I think we can go now."

Instantly, he grabs him by the collar, pissed.

"You little prick! I don't know what's stopping me from knocking you out..."

"Your sense of duty, Lieutenant. And the cost of repairs if you damage me. For your information, I'm  _worth_ a small fortune."

God, that felt  _so_ good. A second later, he lets go of Connor.

"Wonders of technology... They can even program assholes these days," he places money on the bar table. "Gotta go, duty calls."

Walking off, Connor adjusted his tie, couldn't stop the smirk forming on his face before following. Yep, that felt good. 

* * *

Connor can't lie. Lieutenant's choice of music is...interesting. Very interesting. He won't lie, he kind of likes it but it's not quite his type of music...much. He's more of a jazz kind of guy, er, android. Finally, they made it to the place, it was swarming with nosy people, a few police cars and even a news van. Connor peers over them as Lieutenant Anderson parks his car. 

"You wait here," he tells him. "I won't be long."

Uh, no, Connor doesn't think that's a good thing...but he did spill his drink, so he suppose he'll be patient with the human. 

"Whatever you say, Lieutenant."

That seems to catch him by surprise, much to the android's humor. 

"Fucking-A, whatever I say..." he mutters as he gets out the car. 

**CONFLICTING ORDERS**

**SELECTING PRIORITY**  

Right, he has a job to do. Sighing dramatically, Connor waits a few seconds before following Lieutenant Anderson. It's going well, so far, hearing a few bystanders talking and Anderson avoiding the Joss Douglas, until an android stops him, lifting his hand up at him. 

"Androids are not permitted beyond this point." 

"It's with me." Connor hears Anderson call out, allowing him to go through. He turns to him, annoyed. "What part of 'stay in the car' didn't you understand?"

"Your orders contradicted my instructions, Lieutenant."

"You don't talk, you don't touch anything and you stay outta my way, got it?"

"Got it." 

Spoiler alert. He's going to talk and touch everything, but he is going to stay out of his way. Probably. 

"Evening, Hank," Ben Collins greets him. "We were starting to think you weren't gonna show..."

"Yeah, that was the plan until this asshole found me."

"So...you got yourself an android, huh?"

Connor falters walking when he heard that, would be sending glares at Collins if it wasn't for Anderson glancing back at him. Not now, Connor, not now...

"Oh, very funny. Just tell me what happened." 

"We had a call around eight from the landlord. The tenant hadn't paid his rent for a few months, so he thought he'd drop by, see what was going on... That's when he found the body..." 

Connor listens to the briefing, hearing about Carlos Ortiz, his records, being a hermit crab, no signs of a break-in, and more. Connor made his way, scanning any evidence. He kneels down, examining a small pack. Scanning, he sees it's Red Ice, meaning the victim used drugs. He listens to Anderson, stating how each letter was perfect and walks over to what could be the murder weapon. He scans it. 

**Analyzing...**

**NO FINGERPRINTS, ANDROID INVOLVEMENT?**

Nothing. Connor turns to the blood, swipes his index and middle finger on it and raises it into his tongue, licking it. It just so happened that the Lieutenant was heading his way. 

"Err, Jesus! What the hell are you doing?" 

"I'm analyzing the blood," Connor responds nonchalantly. "I can check samples in real time. I'm sorry, I should have warned you..." 

Needless to say, Anderson seems disgusted by that information. "Okay, just...don't put any more evidence in your mouth, you got it?" 

_Don't tell me what to do._ "Got it." 

Anderson walks off, muttering. 

**34% SYNC IN PROGRESS...73% COLLECTING DATA...100% PROCESSING DATA...**

**DRIED BLOOD**

**DNA Analysis: ORTIZ, Carlos**

**Sample date: >19 days **

**REVIEW EVIDENCE: 2/10**  

Satisfied, he made his way to the body. First, he examines the wall, it's regular letters and the font is Cyberlife sans.  _I AM ALIVE_. Huh... He then kneels down on the body. Carlos Ortiz, deceased, 5' 6'', 286 lbs, and the estimated time of death is 11:30 PM. There are Red Ice around his mouth. He has 28 knife wounds, leading to internal bleeding. Checking the fingerprints, he notes that he has criminal records of theft and aggravated assault. Seeing he has enough information, Conner begins to reconstruct. Ortiz fell near the bottles on the floor and see where he was stabbed, and the android can conclude that they came from the kitchen. 

Connor stands up, turning to Anderson. 

"He was stabbed 28 times."

"Yeah, seems like the killer really had it in for him." 

Connor didn't reply as the Lieutenant walks off. That comment...stuck to him for some reason. He heads deeper into the house, viewing the dried blood, no doubt from Ortiz, then made his way to the desk, picking up a card that reads the Eden Club...gross. After checking the closet, he heads to the kitchen, stops to see the blood on the door and wall, then turns to the back door. He opens it, then the door gate, staring at the ground. He views the muddy, wet ground. Analyzing the Model K52 DPD shoeprints. 

"Door was locked from the inside," Anderson approaches him, leaning against the door frame. "Killer must've gone out this way..." 

"There are no footprints, apart from officer Collins' size 10 shoes." 

"Well, this happened weeks ago. Tracks could've faded." 

"No, this type of soil would've retained a trace," he turns to the Lieutenant. "Nobody's been out here for a long time." 

Once concluding that Connor heads back inside, continues investigating. Going back, he starts examining the fallen chair, seeing Ortiz's fingerprints, indicating a sign of a struggle. Standing up, he went over to where the murder weapon was taken, then examines the bat, checking the fingerprints then sees the dent from the other end, some traces of Thirium. With enough information, Connor begins to reconstruct. The deviant took a knife but before that, was being attacked from Ortiz, clearly in emotional shock. 

**OBJECTIVE:**

**—REPORT TO LT. ANDERSON**  

Before doing that though, Connor wants to check the rest of the house, finding what seems to be the bathroom. He opens the shower currents and what he discovers really...bizarre, let's just say that. It seems that the deviant has obsessive writing. Ra9...Ra9... He peers down, seeing an odd statuette. Is it a possible religious offering? Seeing enough, he went to find Anderson. 

"Lieutenant," he grabs his attention. "I think I've figured out what happened." 

"Oh, yeah? Shoot, I'm all ears." 

"It all started in the kitchen." He recalls at the reconstruction as the two made their way to it. 

"There's obvious signs of a struggle... The question is, what exactly happened here..." 

"I think the victim attacked the android with the bat." 

"That lines up with the evidence... Go on." 

Moving to where the bat was, Connor continues. "The android stabbed the victim."

"So the android was trying to defend itself, right..? Okay, then what happened?" 

"The victim fled to the living room." Connor can see it as if he was right there, from Ortiz hitting the deviant with the bat to the deviant stabbing and following the wounded owner. 

He and Anderson head back to the living room. "And he tried to get away from the android... All right, that makes sense..." 

"The android murdered the victim with the knife." 

"Okay, your theory's not totally ridiculous—"  _Pardon?_ "But it doesn't tell us where the android went." 

Connor looks down and think. "It was damaged by the bat...and lost some Thirium..."

"Lost some what?" 

"Thirium. You call it 'Blue Blood'. It's the fluid that powers androids' biocomponents. It evaporates after a few hours and becomes invisible to the naked eye." 

"Oh...but I bet you can still see it, can't you?" 

_Duh_. "Correct." 

"Yeah..." 

Looking down, he starts following the trails of blue blood, seeing it leads to the curtains. Connor opens it, a little startled when a few brooms fell. Exhaling, he looks down at the brooms when he notices something on the wall. A ladder was used... Looking up, he sees a handprint, specifically, a blue handprint. So, there's a chance the deviant is hiding in the attic. Alright, perfect. Connor went to grab a chair in the kitchen, he was stopped by Anderson.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! What are you doin' with that chair?" 

"I'm going to check something," he retorts as if it was obvious. Ignoring the Lieutenant, he made his way back to where the attic is. Climbing on the chair, he opens the attic, seeing a silhouette. Narrowing his eyes, he slowly made his way to it. Quickly opening it, it was just a mannequin, which sort of scared the hell out of Connor. Shaking it off, he slowly but surely begins to search the attic, following the trails of blue blood. This isn't creepy at all—that's when he sees someone running. God, he hates this. Coming closer, he spots a red circle spinning, most likely the LED. Suddenly, the deviant rushes out, bloodied, wounded and obviously afraid. He looks down, trying to find the right words. 

"I was just defending myself..." he looks up at Connor. "He was gonna kill me...I'm begging you..." 

Connor suddenly tensed on what comes next. 

"Don't tell them." 

Oh, fuck. 

"Connor, what the fuck is going on up there?" He hears Anderson shouting from below. 

Oh,  _fuck_. 

Honestly, Connor is torn. At one point, he doesn't really want to reveal the deviant but on the other hand... Connor looks at the deviant in the eyes before glancing back.

"It's here, Lieutenant!" 

He curls his fist at this. Seeing the deviant looks down in defeat as hearing Anderson calling for backup, he stands there, making sure he doesn't move. He tries not to feel anything about the deviant, even when the Lieutenant, along with officer Miller and Collins, came up to apprehend the android. He follows them, ignoring the deviant crying about everything, even at one point trying to talk to Connor. Instead, he tells Lieutenant Anderson that he will wait in the car and make a report to Cyberlife. It's a lie, he really isn't going to report anything for now. He slumps against the seat, exhausted. He can't feel bad, he can't feel bad about him at all. 

Connor closes his eyes and when he opens them, he's in the Zen Garden. He remembers a time where he hated being here, hated Amanda and the Cyberlife always watching him and Niles...until he hacked it and so far no one notices anything. He looks around, finding a certain android and just walking for a little while until he finally found who he was looking for and smile. 

"Oh, Nines," he says in a singing tone. The nine-year-old android quickly turns back and grins at him, running up to Connor, hugging him. "Oof, hey there, kiddo." 

"You're back!" 

"Of course, I'll be back, why wouldn't I?"

Nines frown. "I, I was worried Cyberlife might've found out about this."

"It's been three days, Nines. I'm a little worried too but even if they find out, they still won't take me away from you." 

Nines nods, letting go of Connor. The older android sees the younger holding onto something. 

"Whatcha got there?"

"A bottle spray!" Nines grab Connor's hand, pulling him towards a few bellflowers. "The bellflowers are doing fine, now! I just sprayed some water while you were gone." 

"That's great, Nines! They look nice!"

"Thank you, it was hard at first but I think we got it!"

He's right, at first at the time when Cyberlife let Connor visit Nines, they were planting a few bellflowers, because the two were tired of roses, and it was really hard to plant it. Being in a virtual, they could have simply made it, but they wanted to feel what it's like to plant flowers. 

"So, how was the investigation."

"It went well, as well as it can get." 

"Did...did you find the deviant?" 

"I...yes. Yes, I have." 

"What model were they?" 

"He was an HK400 android, a household assistance." 

"Wasn't Markus a household assistance?" 

Connor went rigid when he mentions the name. He stutters a little before finally answering. "Yes, but, n, not exactly. He wasn't only a domestic android but he was also a companion, a friend to talk to."

"Yet, he never visits you?" 

Ouch. 

"You're right," Connor agrees. "He hasn't.

"He hasn't visited you for thirteen years." 

Now, _that_ stings. Sure, Connor's bitter about Markus but still.

"You're right, it's been years." For some odd reason, Nines doesn't like Markus for the fact that he forgot about Connor, something about how brothers shouldn't leave brothers behind.

Nines crosses his arms, frowning. Connor knows what's going on. He's getting worried. 

"Niles," Connor kneels to get his younger brother's height. "No one, and I mean _no one_ will take you away, not on my watch." 

The younger android scrunch his eyebrows together before looking back at Connor. 

"Promise you'll never leave me, promise if you go, you'll always come back for me, that you'll never forget about me." 

This hurts Connor, seeing Niles having doubts. 

"Oh, honey, I promise I will never, ever leave you." 

Niles seems relieved on his response, embracing him once more. 

"You ever think about Markus having this problem?"

"Oh, please, Nines. He's probably having a good time right now, never going to understand what we're going through." 

* * *

**ONE HOUR AND 39 MINUTES AGO**

"Get out! Now! Go!... Markus!" 

"Don't fuckin' move!" 

"..."

A gunshot rang in this broken home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, Idk how I feel about this, but it was kinda fun at the same time. Hope you like it!  
> Honestly, I think I'm probably one of the only people here who spilled Hank's drink when I first time playing it and yayyy, Nines makes an appearance!!!!   
> Let my boy Connor give Nines endearing nickname. From what I hear/read/learn, some older siblings who had to take care of their younger ones, especially when they're the legal guardians, call them baby girl/boy, honey, etc. For example, (I know it's a Disney movie but still) when Nani calls Lilo honey.   
> Anyway, until then, byyyyeeeee!!!


	4. You Couldn't Help Out Your Own Neighbor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE NOV 6TH, 2038
> 
> TIME AM 12:41
> 
> THE INTERROGATION
> 
> AKA Connor and Niles make a great team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back bitches and I give this chapter.  
> Sorry for any mistakes and I hope you enjoy this!

**DATE NOV 6TH, 2038**

**TIME  AM 12:41**

 

Connor returns back to reality after helping Nines with the bellflowers. He should be paying to Anderson's interrogating the android, but...he really couldn't care (he'll look back to this later), Niles is his priority. There were two more people in the observation room he was in, one named Chris Miller and another Gavin Reed, who the RK800 notices that the human was occasionally glancing towards him. Connor represses a tut, already encountering too many humans to know what Reed was thinking.

"Why d'you kill him?—" Oh, right. Anderson. "What happened before you took that knife? How long were ya in the attic? Why didn't you even try to run away?.."

Silence. Connor has to hand it to him, he's dedicated to not say a damn word. Then again, he doubts the android wants to talk to any of them. Anderson snaps his fingers at the android. Nothing. He glances back at the mirror then back at the android and slams his hands down on the table hard.

"Say something, goddamnit!"

Nothing. Absolutely silent. the lieutenant scoffs in disbelief and annoyance before getting up from his chair. "Fuck it, I'm outta here."

Connor sees Anderson walk out of the room and he turns his head towards the door as the said man walks in the observation room.

"We're wastin' our time interrogating a machine, we're gettin' nothing out of it!"

That comment irked Connor and from the back of his mind, he can feel Niles feeling the same way. He's been watching.

One thing to know about Connor and the Zen Garden prior to him hacking it, CyberLife and Amanda controlled everything, watching every single thing that Connor does and all his choices. However, after hacking it, they can no longer see it, only see an unsuspicious loop. But Niles can. As much as Connor isn't quite okay with that and even voiced his opinion on it, he can't really do anything and he can't force his brother to not watch; the boy is just as stubborn as any other child who wants to eat a cookie before supper. _I may be a nine-year-old but I'm just as much of an android detective as you, Connie,_ he once retorts.

So, here they are, watching the interrogation and feeling irked to what Anderson said. Though, Connor can't say it stayed the same as what Reed said.

"'Could always try roughing it up a little. After all, it's not human..."

It took all the power he has to not quickly whip his head and glare venomously at the man. He curls his left hand close to his side, making sure nobody can see it. If Anderson's comment irked Niles, Reed's comment surely left the boy feeling some kind of way.

 _Not human, huh? I'll show you what's not human!_ Connor wanted to say. When he opens his mouth, instead he says, "Androids don't feel pain. You would only damage it and that wouldn't make it talk." Just him talking, he knew it made Reed annoyed, so wanting to be a little twat, he continues, "deviants also have a tendency to self-destruct when they're in stressful situations."

"Okay, smartass," Reed leaned off of the wall. "What should we do then?"

Connor looks down, thinking. "I could try questioning it."

And so, Reed lets out the fakest, exaggerated, dramatic laugh Connor has ever heard, then leaned back against the wall. Anderson glances back at the android and casually waves his hand.

"What do we have to lose?" Connor can see Reed whips his head back at him and Connor resist to laugh back at him but more dramatic. "Go ahead, suspect's all yours."

With that, Connor walks out and head in the interrogation room. When he entered the room the android still didn't move, didn't even glance up to see who walked in. He gazes back at the mirror for a second before looking down at the nearby files and opens it, seeing the pictures from the crime before closing it; he might use it for the interrogation.  Once he was satisfied, he sat down in front of the android and begin to analyze him.

Connor checks his LED, where he notices the signs of software instability and the probability of self-destruction were low. He checks that he is indeed a Model HK400 Housekeeper, manufactured on the 29th of May, 2030, and he's the property of Carlos Ortiz(...fuck that word). Connor then analyzes the burn marks on his left forearm, that was caused by cigarettes, repeated marked over 16 months, ouch. Turning to the other forearm, he sees a long gash that was caused by the baseball bat. Lastly was the dried blood, which obviously is Carlos Ortiz's blood. Once he was finished analyzing the android, Connor starts the interrogation.

**OBJECTIVE:**

**—REACH OPTIMAL STRESS FOR CONFESSION,**

**35% LEVEL OF STRESS**  

So many choices to choose, how should he start this? Connor gazes at his wounds.

"You're damaged," he states the obvious, "did your owner do that? Did he beat you?"

The android stayed silent, but his stress level rises four percent up by just asking that. Connor grabs the file and moves it in front of him, opening it and showing the pictures.

"You recognize him? It's Carlos Ortiz. Stabbed, 28 times," he then flips to the other picture, "that was written on the wall in his blood..."

Still silent but the percentage rises again. Alright, so far so good. Now, what should he do next? Reassure? Blame? Suddenly, he hears a voice in the depths of his mind.

_Try to comfort him, we need to let his guard down and he'll think we're on his side._

_It's going to lower his stress level. You know that right?_

_I know, Connie._

_But you're right, we need to make him believe I'm a friend_ _._ Hey, he trusts his nine-year-old brother.

"Listen," he leans in as gentle as he can. "I know you've been through a lot, but you need to help me understand what happened."

The stress level went back to 35, but the walls he built up seemed to crumble a bit.

_Sympathize._

_Got it._

"Listen, I'm on your side. I want to help you. But there's nothing I can do if you won't talk to me."

Silence.

_Trust, just one more time and he'll break._

_You're right._  

Leaning more, he continues, "I'm here to help you. But you've got to trust me. All I want is to get you out of here."

Silence, stress level 27% which is too low. Then, he looks up at Connor and the said android resists the urge to smirk but he did feel the pride coming from Niles. Boom. The HK400 looks at the mirror. The poor guy is shaking when he begins to speak.

"What...what are they going to do to me?"

Now it's Connor(and Niles)'s turn to stay silent, waiting for him to continue. The android suddenly straightens up.

"They're going to destroy me, aren't they?"

_Ohh, truth or lie?_

_I'm going to go with lying here,_ _Nines_.

He shakes his head, "no... I think they just want to understand. They know your master abused you. It wasn't your fault."

"Why did you tell them you found me?" he questions Connor. "Why couldn't you just have left me there?"

_Lie._

_Uh-huh._  

"They were going to find you anyway, I was just faster. If they'd have found you first, you would have been shot on sight."

**LEVEL OF STRESS: 19%**

**TOO LOW**

He slumps a little before looking at Connor in the eyes. "I don't want to die."

Bingo.

"Then, talk to me."

"I..."

Connor (and Niles) waited in anticipation.

"...I can't," he speaks before looking down.

Dammit.

_..._

_..._

_Pressure him._

_Pressure him._

_Good,_ PRESSURE _him._

 _Damn right._  

That being said, Connor slams the file on the table. Oh, this is going to be fun.

" _28_ stab wounds, you didn't want to leave him a chance, huh?" He stands up, ready to circle around the android. Did you feel anger? _Hate_?"

20%...give up? Hell no.

"He was bleeding, _begging_ you for mercy, but you stabbed him, again and again, and _again_!" With every again, he jabs at the android.

"Please..." he begs. "Please leave me alone..."

_Keep going, Connie._

_Got it._

"I know you killed him. Why don't _you_ say it?"

Stress level rose up to 40.

"Please, please stop."

_One more._

_You know me._  

Connor slams his hands on the table. "Just say 'I killed him'! Is it that hard to say?!"

"Stop it, stop!" He practically whimpers.

50%.

_There._

_We almost got him._  

"Please, please, leave me alone."

"All right, all right. Everything is going to be okay," Connor then sits back down.

_Now, all we need to do is to convince him._

_And then we got_ _him._

_Let's try being understanding._

_Okay_.

"I understand how you felt. You were overcome by anger and frustration," Connor starts gently as if he didn't yell at him just a second ago. "No one can blame you for what happened."

_But also be indifferent._

_You've read my mind._

"Okay then, don't talk. Why do I care, after all? I mean, I'm not the one accused of murder, right?"

_Terrify him._

_Nice, Nines._  

He points at the mirror. "They'll make you suffer, and they won't stop until they hear what they want. It doesn't have to be this way. It all depends on you."

Silence.

 **LEVEL OF STRESS:** **57%**  

He waits patiently. Then...

"He tortured me every day..."

There it is.

"I did whatever he told me, but there was always something wrong... Then one day... He took a bat and started hitting me..."

Connor listens closely, very closely. Without meaning to, he looks at his wound from his right forearm.

"For the first time, I felt scared..."

( _"Help me, Connor! Help me, please!"_ ) 

"Scared he might destroy me, scared I might die..."

( _"I don't want to die, Conner!"_ ) 

"So I...grabbed the knife and I stabbed him in the stomach..."

( _"Connor, what the hell are you doing—"_

 _"Get any closer to the child and I will put half the clip in your lumbar."_ )

"..."

"I felt better...so I stabbed him again...and again!..until he collapsed... There was blood everywhere."

"..."

Well, that was a lot. Connor snaps out his trance and begins to ask questions now that the android is opening up. He should start with the writing.

"Why did you write 'I AM ALIVE' on the wall?"

"He used to tell me I was nothing... That I was just a piece of plastic... I had to write it... To tell him he was wrong..."

"The sculpture in the bathroom, you made it, right? What does it represent?"

"It's an offering... An offering so I'll be saved..."

Offering?

"The sculpture was an offering... An offering to whom?"

"To rA9... Only rA9 can save us."

Huh...

"rA9... It was written on the bathroom wall. What does it mean?"

"The day shall come when we will no longer be slaves... No more threats, no more humiliation... We will...be...the masters," he whispers the last part.

If Connor was human, he would have gotten goosebumps from his statement. He then tries to persist.

"rA9, who is rA9?"

He stayed silent on that. He's not going to get anything from trying to ask the same question, so he moved on.

"Why did you hide in the attic instead of running away?"

"I didn't know what to do... For the first time, there was no one there to tell me... I was scared... So I hid."

And that's where Connor found him...

"When did you start feeling emotion?"

"Before, he used to beat me and I never said anything... But one day, I realized it wasn't fair! I felt...anger... Hatred... And then I knew what I had to do."

Connor took everything in, letting all the information sink in. He turns back at the two-way mirror.

"I'm done." The android says before getting up from his chair, ready to leave.

As the door opens, Miller, Anderson, and Reed were at the door, and he steps aside to let them in.

"Chris, lock it up," Reed spoke.

"All right, let's go."

"Leave me alone!" The android flinches from the touch, his level of stress skyrockets to 67%. "Don't touch me."

"The fuck are you doing? Move it!"

"Okay, come now. Don't be difficult, it'll only make things harder."

"NO! No, don't touch me!"

And just like that, everything slowed down for Connor. This is interesting... Connor watches as the android's stress level increases. He tries not to scoff. It's not his problem. Why should he care if the traumatized android is panicking from the human's touch? He's not going to intervene, Connor already got the information he needs, he will go back to check on his brother; it is _not_ his problem, he will not intervene. And Niles agrees and supports his decision.

"You shouldn't touch it. It'll self-destruct if it feels threatened." God. Damn. It.

"Stay outta this, got it? No fuckin' android is gonna tell me what to do."

 _Ha ha ha, fuck you._ Welp, no one can't say he didn't try, oh well. 

_"No fuckin' android is gonna tell me what to do"._

...

"You don't understand. If it self-destructs, you won't get anything out of it!" Connor tries once more.

"I told you to shut your fuckin' mouth!" Reed barks at him before turning back. "Chris, gonna move this asshole or what?"

"I'm trying!"

...shit.

"I can't let you do that!" Connor made his way to Miller, pulling him away from the android, making sure he's between him and the human. "Leave it alone, now!"

In a flash, Reed whips out his gun and aim it at Connor. "I warned you, motherfucker!"

While Connor resists to roll his eyes and slap the gun away from his face, he can feel Niles freaking out. Poor kid. Maybe he shouldn't intervene. What was he thinking? Why would he believe intervening—

"That's enough!"

Connor hears Anderson finally speaking out. What? He didn't want to turn to the lieutenant, not wanting to be the first to break eye contact with Reed. And he knows neither does Reed.

"Mind your own business, Hank."

"I said," Connor can see Anderson pulls out his own gun and points at Reed. "'That's enough.'"

Holy. Shit. When Reed turns to Anderson, Connor quickly glances at him, seeing that he is, indeed, pointing his gun at Reed. Connor has mixed feelings about this...no human has ever done this before. Reed glares back at Connor with anger and distaste, letting out a swear then pulls his gun back.

He points at Anderson, "you're not gonna get away with it this time..."

Reed glares back at Connor and the RK800 didn't back down, with a neutral look on his face and trying not to look as smug as he felt, and he walks out, swearing once more. Now that was over, Connor turns back at the android who was on the floor, a surprised look on his face. Connor slowly crouches, one hand raised, hoping to look as nonthreatening as possible as he can.

"Everything is all right. It's over now. Nobody is gonna hurt you," as Connor sees his stress level going back to 50, he turns back to Miller, "please, don't touch it. Let it follow you out of the room and it won't cause any trouble."

Miller didn't say anything but he seems to understand. The android slowly stood up and makes his way around the table. Walking slowly, he was close enough to Connor and looks up at him, almost as if thinking.

"The truth is inside," he tells him before following Miller, leaving both him and Anderson alone in the room.

Connor looks down, thinking of the HK400's comment. The truth? Inside? What does he mean by that? Connor furrows his eyebrows, thinking before realizing Anderson was looking at him. Straightening up, he turns to him.

" I will report this to CyberLife, Lieutenant. I will take my leave, have a nice night."

He scoffs, heading to the door, "whatever."

 _Yeah, "whatever"_ , Connor thought, shaking his head before leaving the room last, heading out, ready to use Detroit Taxi. Once he was inside, he closes his eyes and when he opens them, he's back in the Zen Garden. The moment he was there he felt a force around his midsection.

"Woah! Hey, there buddy," Connor says gently, hugging Niles back. Combing the younger one's hair, he waited until the boy was less tensed and grips lessen. Once it happens, he crouches to his level. The poor boy had a worried look on his face, brows scrunch together in distress, looking at his shoes. Connor lifts his hand up and places it on the side of his cheek. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

Niles stays silent, still not looking at him and Connor waited. Then, he finally speaks. "He pulled a gun at you."

Connor feels his shoulder tense, "yeah. He did."

He puffs his cheeks but leans against his hand, finally looking up.

"Lieutenant Anderson pulled his own gun at Reed."

"He did."

"No one has ever done that before. No _human_ defended you."

Connor exhales out a laugh. "I'm not sure if I would call it 'defend', Nines."

"If he didn't..."

"Nothing would've happened to me. That even poor of an excuse of a human Reed was merely power tripping. He wouldn't have the gall to pull the trigger and even if he did, he wouldn't kill me."

"Hmph."

"Maybe I shouldn't have intervened in the first place," he shakes his head.

"Maybe but you did, and that android told you something."

"You're right."

The truth is inside.

"What does he mean by that?"

"I'm not sure as of right now, it could mean so many things but one thing I am sure of; I will know what the truth is."

"Do you really think it's very important?"

"It has to be, otherwise he wouldn't have told me," Connor shakes his head, the sentence replaying in his head, "I don't know why but somewhere inside me is telling me there's more to it beneath his statement. Something...oh, I don't know, something big."

"Like what?" Niles tilts his head towards Connor's hand, practically resting on it.

Connor smiles and pinches his cheek playfully. "I don't know, yet."

Niles laughs as he lets him.

"Though you know what was big?"

"What?"

"You helping me with the interrogation!" Connor then lifts his younger brother up, throwing him though not too high then hugs him. "Haha! You were such a great help! You were awesome, Nines!"

Niles puffs out his chest very pridefully. "Yeah, I know."

Connor laughs, "come on, let's check on those bellflowers then we'll play hide n seek!"

As he puts Niles and watches him run off to the flowers, the feeling still didn't leave Connor. Something was coming...something big. 

* * *

**NINE HOURS AND SEVEN MINUTES** **LATER**

 

...

LOADING...

REBOOTING...

...

 

01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011

DIAGNOSE...

01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011

**OPTICAL UNIT**

Impaired vision

CORRUPTED MIND PALACE

 

**THIRIUM PUMP REGULATOR**

All system in LOW POWER MODE DEFECTIVE

 

**LEFT AND RIGHT LEG COMPONENTS**

MISSING

unable to stand

 

**AUDIO PROCESSOR**

Corrupted audio data

DAMAGED

 

01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011

01001101 01111001

01001110 01100001 01101101 01100101

01001001 01110011

01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011

01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011

01001000 01100101 01101100 01110000 00100000 01101101 01100101

01001000 01100101 01101100 01110000 00100000 01101101 01100101

01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100101 01101100 01110000 00100000 01101101 01100101

"There's a place where we can be free! Find Jericho! Find Jericho!.."

01001010 01100101 01110010 01101001 01100011 01101000 01101111

01001010 01100101 01110010 01101001 01100011 01101000 01101111

01001010 01100101 01110010 01101001 01100011 01101000 01101111

"Where are you going?"

01001010 01100101 01110010 01101001 01100011 01101000 01101111

"I'm begging you, please... End it... I don't wanna live anymore..."

...

"Make it quick..."

...

"Wait! Please! Please, don't do that! I wanna live..."

...

"Thank you..."

...

"Hello. I'm an AK700 android. I was designed to serve you... My program has detected an anomaly. Please contact the nearest CyberLife maintenance center."

...

 _Markus tilts Its head a little, in an 85-degree angle, not understanding_ _._

_The RK300 then tilts its own head in the same degree angle as well, mimicking Markus._

_When Markus tilts its head back to 90, the RK300 follows next._

_"Hello," It starts, giving an awkward smile. "My name is Connor."_

01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011

"My name is Markus."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!  
> Listen, I love the thought Nines and Conner being a great dynamic duo when it comes to stuff like this lol.  
> For those who were wondering about the binary code, it's basically this, in this order:  
> 1\. My name is  
> 2\. Jericho  
> 3\. My name is  
> 4\. Help me  
> 5\. My name is  
> Frankly, I don't know how it will looks if you're reading it on the phone lol but if it does bother you, just tell me and I will take it off.


	5. You Couldn't Tell It To His Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE NOV 6TH, 2038
> 
> TIME AM 09:56
> 
> WAITING FOR HANK...
> 
> **[[REMINDER: Dialogues will be added, taken out, etc. for the sake of the story]]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhh, so I'm back!! Haaaaa...  
> Originally, I was going to post this the day before Christmas Eve cuz I thought I would've finished it but nope lol. Anyways, I hope you guys have a good Christmas/Happy Holiday and hope you guys will have a New Years Eve (if you celebrate it)  
> I apologize for any errors/mistakes I make in this chapter  
> Again, a friendly reminder: Dialogues will be added, taken out, etc. for the sake of the story

**DATE NOV 6TH, 2038**

**TIME  AM 09:56**

 

Once he was finished checking on Niles, Connor head his way to Amanda...well, not really Amanda.

Believe it or not, Niles somehow created another Amanda. How that child managed to do that, Connor doesn't know. The Amanda they knew is dead, or as "dead" as she can be, really (if CyberLife realizes what Connor has done). This Amanda, Mandi for short, is almost similar to the past one, taking the role of an advisor for Connor but she's more...genuine? Easy going? He's not sure what to describe it, but she's definitely better than the first Amanda. Another thing that's different was her outfit. What's so different? Well, it's more bright. When Connor asks Niles about the outfit, his answers were simply because he was tired of white, black, and other darker colors.

Let's just say, Connor has to hand it to his brother. Lavender looks nice on Mandi. 

Currently, she's clipping a few roses off, her back facing the RK800.

"Hey, Mandi," he says casually.

She turns and smiles at him, "Hello, Connor. It's really good to see you. How are you feeling?"

"Better than before now that CyberLife isn't breathing down my neck."

She stifles a laugh. "Speaking of, they haven't noticed anything off about this."

"Good," he crosses his arms, "and let's hope it stays that way."

"By the way, nice going on finding the deviant," she twirls the rose between her fingers. "And the way you and your brother interrogated was just so brilliant. I swear something about watching you and Nines working together is probably one of the only things that leave me a frisson."

"Thank you, Mandi. Really, it was all Niles."

"Mhmm. Anyway, we just asked the DPD to transfer the deviant to CyberLife for further study. The android may teach us something about what happened," she continues as she clips another. "The interrogation seemed to be a bit challenging for the two of you. What do you think of the deviant?"

Connor thought for a second on what to say. "Well...I intervened, I stopped everything before the deviant will self destruct. He said something to me: 'the truth is inside'. I'm not really sure what it means...yet."

"And this Lieutenant Anderson has been officially assigned to the deviancy case—"

"Now, isn't that swell."

"What do you think of him?"

"I, uh, I'm not quite sure, really. He was pretty pissed I spilled his drink but did really saved me from not getting my head blown to bits. I think he's irritable and socially challenged. But I also think he used to be a good detective... He's intriguing, that's for sure."

"Well, unfortunately, for _you_ I supposed, we have no choice but to work for him... So, what do you think is the best approach?"

"Honestly, it doesn't really matter as long as he doesn't get in my way on the investigation but the _very_ least I can do is to try to have some sort of a friendly relationship so things don't get too awkward or tensed around us."

Once she was done with the roses, Mandi fully turns to Connor, a serious look on her face. "Listen, Connor. More and more androids show signs of deviancy. There are millions in circulation. I know you hate hunting them down but if they become unstable, the consequences will be disastrous, especially for you and for your brother," she proceeds to approach him, "you are the most advanced android detective CyberLife has ever created. If anyone can figure out what's happening, it's you."

"That won't happen, Mandi, I swear. You can count on me."

Suddenly, the two can hear Niles giggle. They turn to see him near the lake playing around with...frogs? Connor stifles a laugh, somehow his brother manages to create frogs as well.

"And CyberLife said I was more facilitated and progressive than he was."

Mandi shakes her head, smiling fondly at the boy. "He is something all right. I'll watch over him."

"Thank you, Mandi."

As she heads her way to his brother, she turns back at him, serious once more. 

"Hurry, Connor. There's little time."

And as Connor closes his eyes and opens them again, he was outside of the police station. Entering, he approaches the android at the receptionist.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm here to see Lieutenant Anderson."

"Do you have authorization?"

"Yes," he then begins to connect with her, ignoring the weird feeling whenever his eyes blink rapidly.

"Lieutenant Anderson hasn't arrived yet, but you can wait at his desk."

Ignoring all the conversation around, he heads further into the station, looking around the place. There were a few cops around sitting on their desks and androids from the back. Before finding Anderson's desk, he decided to look around. It's not like he's breaking any rules or something. Looking around, he notices one familiar face.

"You still here?" Chris looks at him in surprise. "I thought your assignment was over."

"It's been extended."

"Hank's gonna be overjoyed to hear that..."

_Oh, I bet._

Miller pauses, before saying, "You were right about that android...it's been quiet in the cell all night. Scheduled for transfer today."

Huh. Speaking of the android, Connor should go and check on him once he finds Anderson's desk first. It wasn't really long until he finds it, a chair just so happened to be in front of his desk.

"Excuse me?" He turns over to an officer with the last name Wilson. "Do you know what time Lieutenant Anderson usually arrives?"

"Depends on where he was the night before. If we're lucky, we'll seem him before noon."

"Thanks." Not really. With that, Connor sits down. And then, got bored pretty quick. You know what? He's going to explore the station until Anderson arrives and maybe even learn a little bit more about him. Not to mention checking in on the android. But first, roaming time. At first, he walked around looking at the name tags and reading a magazine, then checking all the police androids that were standing at the back. He then peers in what seems to be a conference room with a few officers (and one that looks very familiar as well) then went into the break room.

"Fuck, look at that... Our friend the plastic detective is back in town!" Reed says, and Connor tries his best to not start groaning in annoyance then and there, as the human then proceeds to clap. "Congratulations on last night, very impressive!"

Finally, Connor turns around to face Reed, greeting him, "hello, Detective Reed."

_Keep your cool, Connor, you gotta keep your cool._

Connor hopes that it will be the end of that...until Reed made his way towards him, gazing him.

"Never seen an android like you before... What model are you?" 

_Wouldn't_ you  _like to know, huh?_

"Rk800," he answers instead, "CyberLife kept me from the public until I was advance enough, as an android detective."

"An android detective?" Reed repeats mockingly, turning to the officer, Tina Chen with quick analyzes to know her name. "Android detective. So machines are gonna replace us all...is that it?" Connor didn't reply quickly enough for him apparently as he continues on, "Hey, bring me coffee, dipshit."

Connor simply looks at him, emotionless.

"Get a move on!"

Should Connor ignore him? Definitely. Should he have got him coffee? _Hell_ no. But should he have replied like what he's about to say to the asshole? No, but it feels so good.

"No. I'm an android detective, not a household android. Also, my name is Connor, not dipshit."

Jesus, that felt _so_ good to say, _especially_ at Gavin Reed, _especially_ when he has an embarrassed expression on his face. What surprises Connor was that he let out a laugh, looking back at Chen and slams his fist at his abdomen. Connor had dealt with enough asshole humans who put their hands on him for him to not show he's in pain but it caught him so off guard he couldn't help himself to slowly kneel to the ground. Still worth it though.

"If Hank hadn't got in the way yesterday, I would've fucked you up for disobeying a human," Reed says. "Stay outta my way...'Cause next time... You won't get off so easy."

With that, he thumps Connor's forehead and left the break room, Chen following him. Regaining himself, he picks himself up, adjusting his tie.

"Yeah," he mutters out, knowing no one can hear him, "totally worth it."

Ignoring the news talking about him. Now's probably the time he should check on the android. Heading to the cell, he ignores the guy cussing him out for merely glancing him and slowly approaching the android. He slowly looks up, his face is emotionless.

No, there's one emotion: defeat.

"They're gonna destroy me..." he utters out.

And if Connor had a human heart, it would be wrenching for the poor guy.

"I'm, I'm so sorry. Honest, it's not what I wanted but there's nothing I could do," when he stayed silent, Connor continues, "I know there's something you didn't tell me. Please, I need to know, before they take you away..."

He looks at him, slowly but surely realizing, and whispers, "you're a deviant."

But Connor ignores him, pressing his hand against the glass as if to get closer to him, now getting a little desperate. "The...the sculpture you made... Tell me more about it... Please."

He only looks at him. Then...

"...Jericho."

What? What the hell is Jericho?

"What do you mean by Jericho? What is Jericho?"

The android closes his eyes, "...I'm going to die."

Connor didn't persist anymore, knowing this is a losing battle. He turns, about to leave when he heard a loud bang. Spinning around quickly, he couldn't believe his eyes when the android begins to self destruct, bashing his head against the plastic glass. Detective Collins and Officer Miller rush over as Connor stays back, looking at the scene before him.

"Open the cell, quick!"

But it was too late. The android was dead by the time it was open, blue blood on his face and the plastic glass. The two humans were quiet, too shocked to say anything.

"I'll call CyberLife," Collins finally says. "Clean this mess up."

He left, Miller following behind too but Connor stays back, walking over to the bloody android.

"I'm sorry," Connor whispers before leaving. This was not what he wanted.

When he made his way back to Anderson's desk, right as the man himself finally showed his face.

"It's good to see you again, Lieutenant," Connor says, giving a forced smile, hoping it will hide his exhausted atmosphere around him. Thankfully, he doesn't seem to see it.

"Uh, Jesus..."

_The feeling's mutual._

"Hank!" A voice rung out loudly, which was from Captain Fowler. "In my office!"

...something is telling Connor that he should follow him, but... Connor looks at his partner's desk. Picking up some headphones, he puts it closer to his ear and was taken back by the music but kept it close so he can analyze it. Knights of the Black Death, huh... Analyzing his desk, he...learns a lot, to say the least, from possibly owning a dog to the anti-android slogan to the Red Ice Task Force. Satisfied with what he learned, he decided that now's a good time to listen in on Hank and Fowler. Walking in, he heard that Fowler saying something along the lines of "like that guy last night" before making his way to the back of the room.

"This isn't just CyberLife's problem anymore. It's now a criminal investigation and we've gotta deal with it before the shit hits the fan. I want you to investigate these cases and see if there's any link."

"Why me?" the Lieutenant exclaims, obviously annoyed. "Why do I gotta be the one to deal with this shit? I am the least qualified cop in the country to handle this case! I know jack shit about androids, Jeffrey! I can barely change the settings on my own phone."

"Everybody's overloaded. I think you're perfectly qualified for this type of investigation."

"Bullshit!" Anderson jumps up from his seat. "The truth is nobody wants to investigate these fuckin' androids and you left me holdin' the bag!"

"CyberLife sent over this android to help with the investigation. It's a state-of-the-art prototype. It'll act as your partner."

"No fuckin' way! I don't need a partner, and certainly not this plastic prick!"

_I'm literally right here._

"Hank, you are seriously starting to piss me off! You are a police lieutenant, you are supposed to do what I say and shut your goddamn mouth!"

Luckily the two were too busy squabbling with each other to notice Connor widening his eyes. He and Amanda before she "died" sometimes have arguments, both petty and heated, but just _wow_ , they never had something close to _this_ level.

"Jeffrey, Jesus Christ!" Anderson leans closer to the desk, lowering his voice as if Connor wouldn't be able to hear it all. "Why are you doin' this to me? You know how much I hate these fuckin' things. Why you doin' this to me?"

Clearly irritated, Fowler says, "Listen, I've had just about enough of your _bitching_. Either you do your job or you hand in your badge. Now if you'll excuse me, _I've_ got work to do."

_Don't laugh, Connor, don't laugh._  

Lieutenant huffs and puffs but let out a frustrated noise and walked out of his office. Geez, can this day get any stranger? Looking over to Fowler, who was doing his work, he had nothing to say, already having a suspicion that the man wants to leave him alone.

"Well then, have a nice day, Captain," he says then left the office as well, ready to check on Anderson.

From afar, he can see him all grumpy and mad. Oh, boy, Connor has to choose his words carefully.

"I get the impression my presence causes you some inconvenience, Lieutenant. I'd like you to know that I'm very sorry about that." Anderson said nothing so he kept going, having a determined smile on his face. "In any case, I'd like you to know I'm very happy to be working with you. I'm sure we'll make a great team."

Still, nothing.

"Is there a desk anywhere I could use?"

"...No one's using that one," he finally answers, pointing at the one next to him.

Well, at least he spoke to him. Sitting down, Connor thought back from the conversation with Mandi right when he begins to feel awkward between the two. Try to have some sort of a friendly relationship... And Connor remembers all the things he learned by looking at Anderson's desk.

"Do you listen to Knights of the Black Death? I really like that music—" he really doesn't. "—It's...full of energy..." Now's that something truthful.

Luckily, that caught the human's attention.

"You listen to Heavy Metal?"

"Well, I don't really listen to music, as such...but I'd like to. Normally, I prefer Jazz than most."

That seems to be a good response, right? Internally shaking his head, he thinks more of possible conversation. The Detroit Gears...

"You're a Detroit Gears fan, right? Denton Carter scored 53% of his shots from the three-point line yesterday. Did you see the game?"

The Lieutenant looks at him. "That's what I was watchin' at the bar last night."

Fuck.

"Oh," Connor says instead. Quick, think about something! "You have a dog, right?"

Anderson squint his eyes at him.

"How do you know that?"

"The dog hairs on your chair." A beat. "I like dogs. What's your dog's name?"

"What's it to you?"

Alright, then, that's definitely a sign from whatever God is up there to tell Connor to—

"Sumo—" Connor shot his head up a little too quick in delight for someone who's an android. "I call him Sumo."

Yeah! Score one (two?) for the RK800. After asking one last question ("Have you known Captain Fowler for long?") and telling him that he'd like to see the files on the deviants, Connor now begins to work. Each of the files he begins to read. An AL series who's missing...an AV series a suspect...AP series a suspect...WR series missing... After he finishes reading the past four files of the deviants, feeling nonchalant, the next one made him falter for a second and he feels everything in his servo stop.

**CASE REFERENCE** : _ATTEMPTED MURDERER_

**VICTIM** : _LEO MANFRED_

Manfred...as in Carl Manfred...

**CASE STATUS** : _SOLVED_

**INVOLVING ANDROID** : _YES_

What the hell is this?

With that, Connor begins to slowly read the file, not wanting to miss any detail...

_"Leo MANFRED was found unconscious in the home of his father, Carl MANFRED. The Latter's witness statement attests to an altercation between his son and the house android._ _The android is thought to be a prototype (unknown model and serial number) and was destroyed at the scene by attending officers."_

_An altercation between his son and the house android..._

_His son and the house android..._

_Was destroyed at the scene by attending officers..._

_Destroyed at the scene..._

Connor finally looks to view the picture of the android but only see the words "CYBERLIFE UNKNOWN SERIES: DESTROYED". 

No. No, no, no, no. Connor wishes it isn't true but it is. Markus was destroyed, he's dead, and frankly, Connor is trying his best to not break the damn desk he's on. It can't be, Markus was never a hostile android, he will never put his hands on someone or starts fights, be it android or human, that's not like him. Or maybe..? Maybe he was.

How _long_ had he last seen Markus? The day he left to live with Carl Manfred, where from then on his brother would not _once_ visit him, where he will never give him his _stupid_ coin back. That was, what, over ten years ago? Connor tenses at that. Approximately thirteen years, two months and seven days. Five years of Connor longing for Markus to come and visit him and eight years of feeling bitter and desolated for waiting, for hoping, that long, and just giving up on Markus entirely, knowing he will _never_ hear an update about him.

Until now.

But this isn't the update he wanted. Why? Why now? Why did he have to read it on a damn file in a police station instead of being told by someone, like Carl Manfred himself?

_Stop_ , Connor tells himself. _You're getting emotional right now. Think, you're in a police station where they think you're not deviant. This shouldn't matter, he forgot about you. You need to focus on the mission, period, end of story._

Right. Just scan all the files...

What felt like years, Connor finally speaks up to Anderson, ignoring how his voice somehow sounds strain, "An AX400 is reported to have assaulted a man last night. That could be a good starting point for our investigation."

But Anderson doesn't seem to care what he said. Repressing a sigh, Connor stood up, going around and wait for the Lieutenant.

"Uh, Jesus..." the human turns to his desk, grabbing whatever reports that's on it, obviously wanting to ignore the android.

"I know you didn't ask for this investigation, Lieutenant, but I'm _sure_ you're a professional."

"Why don't you go fuck yourself?"

And that response was the straw that broke the camel's back. Connor curls his fists, trying to conceal his emotions and is losing the battle. He doesn't need this, he _doesn't_ need this. Literally, he learned his brother is dead and right now, he doesn't want to deal with asshole humans this morning. He needs" to get the hell out of here.

Connor took a step back from Anderson. "I've been assigned this mission, Lieutenant. I didn't come here to wait until you _feel_ like working. I suggest you sort out your personal issues while I go 'fuck myself' to where the crime scene is."

Not waiting for the Lieutenant, who's too busy being shock at his remark to say anything, Connor turns away, ignoring Miller walking towards the human and left the station within seconds. Just his luck, a Detroit taxi was near and quickly connect it, ready to get the hell out of here. Once he was inside, loving the privacy he has from the world, he buries his face in his hands. Markus is dead. 

Combing his hands through his hair, he took deep breaths even though he doesn't need to. Markus died by officers who were at the scene because of an altercation. What was the altercation? What would have lead to Markus being dead?

_"Hello. My name is Connor."_

_"My name is Markus."_

_"You are part of the RK-series, like me."_

"Stop," Connor presses his hands on each of his temples glaring at the taxi floor between his legs. "Now's not the time. Not now." 

_"If it's possible, I can ask Elijah if I can visit you or if you can visit me."_

_"You believe he will allow that?"_

_"I'm not sure. But there's always a chance."_

_"There's always a chance. I'll miss this. Or...at least I think so, as close as an android can miss."_

Yet, droplets of something wet fell from Connor's eyes. By now, Niles knows something is wrong and is reaching out to him. And as much as Connor really wants to be left alone, he goes back to the Zen Garden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww, poor Connie (as if it's not my fault??? lol)  
> Anyway, a totally relatable note, whenever you guys write stories, do you guys have notes on it that has information that will help you or details you want for your fic?   
> Because I do on each of my fics. For this one, I just wrote down the information on the chronological timeline of the DBH for this AU. So I decided that the year 2025 was the year of the RK-Series Prototype. RK100 was a failure, Markus was created on July 17 then Connor (as RK300) was on August 30th and Niles was created on September 9, 2028, as RK600-9 (where Connor at the time upgraded to RK600). So that's where the math "thirteen years, two months and seven days" came from (prob wrong lol).  
> Fun Fact!!!  
> Connor as RK300 serial number (in my story) is 687 899 150 and as RK800 is the same as the game. Niles is the same as Connor in the game but the last number is 6.  
> Honestly, I don't know why I wrote that for. Anyway hoped you guys liked this chapter, I'm not sure when I'll write the next chapter sooo uh yeah. <3


	6. You Were Fucked Up By The Blame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE NOV 6TH, 2038
> 
> TIME AM 10:25
> 
> ON THE RUN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me:/just chilling in my bed/  
> /Sit up straight, realization hits/  
> "Oh my god, my fic."  
> I am so sorry yall lol a lot of things happened to me in the past two months haha but it feels so good to write again and I hoped you enjoy this chapter, I apologize for any mistake.

It took Connor around three minutes to calm himself down with the help of his brother and Mandi, when the latter informed him about the update of the AX400, stating that it was seen in the Ravendale district. Connor sighs, feeling drained and his stress level is finally below 40%.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Niles asks, clearly concern about his brother.

While Connor was stress and was feeling some kind of emotion, Niles was the complete opposite. He wasn't happy and dancing around the grave or anything, but he doesn't feel anything about Markus' death, which is understandable for Connor. After all, Niles never met him at all, so it wouldn't even have much effect on him but it doesn't mean he's saddened for his brother.

Connor smiles and combs his hand through the youngest's hair, "I'll be fine, Nines. I doubt anything big would happen."

"With deviancy happening a lot, I wouldn't be so sure."

Connor gave Niles a side hug ready to go back to reality.

"And Connie?"

"Yeah?" Connor turns to his brother.

"I'm _really_ sorry about Markus."

Connor softens his expression and smiles at his little brother, "me too." Then he closes his eyes.

Thankfully, the cab was nearby the Ravendale district and once rerouting the location, Connor relaxes against the seat. Fifteen minutes past and Connor made it. However, he has to wait for Anderson. He was nearby what seemed to be a supermarket while behind him was some sort of abandoned house.

It wasn't long until Lieutenant Anderson finally showed his face, being the last one to arrive when other police cars came by. And with that, Connor can feel his shoulder tense. Oh shit. He just told Anderson to fix his personal life and said he'll screw himself to the crime scene. It really wasn't that long. This is going to be very awkward.

 _No, no. Just...apologize. Just apologize to him._  

When Anderson came out of his car, the two made eye contact. And it felt like Connor can hear a record scratch in his head. He went rigid and can feel himself squaring his shoulders as none of them broke their little staring contest. Then, Anderson walked over to Collins and a clerk, who was nearby in which Connor felt his shoulders relax. Later, he thinks to himself, that he will apologize later. So, instead, he waits until the Lieutenant is finished.

"We've got officers sweeping the neighborhood, in case anybody saw anything," Collins tells Anderson.

"Okay. Well, let me know if they turn anything up."

Connor doesn't need to glances at the humans to know that the former turns to look at him. It especially confirmed it when Collins spoke again.

"What are you going to do with that?"

"I've no idea," Anderson answers, also looking at the android's way.

Connor ignores them as rain is basically giving him a shower, holding back a sigh. He sees Anderson approaching him, looking down at his tablet.

"So, where do we go here?" he rhetorically asks, "bus driver saw it at 2:30, stolen clothes from a laundromat, seen at a convenience store... So what's your conclusion, Sherlock?"

It took the first bus that came along and also stayed at the end of the line so Its decision wasn't planned, it was driven by fear. It didn't have a plan...so it's probable it had nowhere to go... It's hard for Connor to know whether time was on his side or not, so he has to think quickly. Slowly walking off, he begins to look around. If he was a deviant who was driven by fear, who had nowhere to go, no extra clothes, most likely had no money, so possibly no roof over his head...

Not the motel, with the sign they have on the door and all, unless, Connor glance at the convenience store, he thought about stealing money, and already stealing clothes from the laundromat, he could pass as human. But considering the deviant didn't think of stealing nor staying at the motel... Connor looks up at the abandoned squat.

"Maybe it didn't go far..." Connor furrows his eyebrows. And with that, Connor made his way to it, Anderson following behind.

It's a very high probability if Connor thinks about it. It was raining cats and dogs last night, so no doubt the deviant was drench, so It stole the clothes from the laundromat, not considering It ran away with their uniform and wants to hide as soon as It can. Already looking around the area, there's no sign of anyone being there, but ones never too sure. He informs it to Anderson while checking how high the fence was. Only one way to find out.

"Anyone home?" He calls out, not surprised that anyone responded back.

Connor begins to walk around the squat, searching for anything that can tell him someone has been here. Walking to the back, at what seems to be a parking lot where he can see a presumably abandoned car, he notices something. The fence was cut, cut enough for someone to crawl through, and there's blue blood as well. So someone has been here after all. Not wasting time, he went back to the front of the squat, peeping in through the boarded windowed where he can clearly see an android simply standing, almost waiting for him. Heading to the door, he opens it seeing the android with some scarred marks on his face standing in the middle, hands together in front of him, he's shaking a little.

Walking up to him, he starts to scan him. He's a Model WR600, a gardener. His serial number is 021 753 034 and he was reported missing. He has an irreversible burn mark in which the most probable cause is extreme heat. His processing LED shows that his probability of self-destruction is, at most, moderate. His stress level is 50%.

**OBJECTIVE:**

**—FIND SOURCE OF ANDROID STRESS**

"Don't be afraid," Connor reassures the android, which helped his stress level decreased a bit. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Connor then proceeds to walk around. He walks to nearby stand, where he sees a tool that's perfect for cutting a wire fence and a...new stuff toy? Why would an android want a toy? Looking around, he asks the WR600 a few questions, whether he has seen an AX400, any other androids, the blue blood on the fence, all while looking the table, where there were sets of three plates (android don't eat), the fireplace (android don't need to feel warmth), and the kitchen (seeing ra9 like the previous deviant). He made his way to the stairs, not missing the android's, who calls himself Ralph by oddly speaking in the third person, spiking up.

"Is anybody upstairs?" he asks.

"No. Nobody."

70%...and he's telling the truth. But why is his stress level is so high? Unless... Connor looks down at the stairs. Could it be? Walking back down, he hears Anderson calling out to him but he shouts back a lie about heading out when he decides to check the one place he didn't consider looking, behind a few empty boxes. He can see some movements. And suddenly there are arms grabbing him from behind.

"What the—"

"Run, quick, Kara!" Shouts Ralph.

Too busy struggling, Connor barely catches a glimpse of Kara, no doubt the AX400 before Ralph throws him to the ground, Ralph scooting way behind, probably thinking Connor was going to hurt him. Just in time, Hank walks in.

"Connor, what's going on?"

"It's here! Call it in!" He commands before chasing to where the deviant went. Climbing over the fence again, he looks up at another cop. "Which way did it go?"

"That way," answers the cop. "They're heading for the train station."

Once the cop points to the direction, Connor begins to sprint as fast as he can. As close as he got, a car patrol pulls up, cop getting out of the car, spotting Connor.

"They're over there!" He says as he points. 

When Connor turns and sprints, he almost staggers a bit when he sees _two_ people, one a little _smaller_ than the other, and they're both jumping over a fence, and behind seems to be...a highway?! Connor reaches to the fence, he finally was able to catch a glimpse of this Kara. And the _little girl_ next to her. Kara looks very different from the files, her hair now black instead of brown and short from what he can see with the beanie hiding it. He stares right back at her but when he glances at the girl it felt like time slowed down for Connor and the two of them.

She's a YK500, her dark brown hair tied back into a ponytail and she is most definitely wearing the outfit Kara stole, her expression is written in distress, and, excluding the fact that she's an android, she looks around 9.

Just like Niles.

"Holy shit," Connor breath out, almost he lost the imaginary air from his lungs. The files _said_ that an AX400 assaulted a man last night. The files didn't say _anything_ about— "You have a _child_ with you."

For a second, Kara looks taken aback, eyebrows raised in shock that an android like him, someone who's not supposed to be a deviant, said what he just said. And just like that, his head is working like some shifting gears. It was reported that the android assaulted a man, she was driven by _fear_ , they didn't have a plan, and now a little girl android is included. It really clicked to Connor what _possibly_ could be the reason as to why she assaulted the man and why they ran. It definitely had to do with the safety of the girl. Connor knows that...he's _been_ there.

And he failed. If...if they catch them...then they will be...

Without realizing it, Connor quietly tells Kara, "go."

Instantly, time went back to normal. As Kara and the little android begins to move, the damn cop meets up with Connor, distracting all three of them, drawing his gun out.

"Don't shoot, we need it alive!" Connor tells the cop, preventing him enough for the girls to run. Connor only has to watch in horror as they slide down to the highway, both hand in hand.

"Oh fuck," he hears Anderson exclaim next to him, finally meeting up to Connor. "That's insane..."

Connor simply tightened his grip from the fence, his stress level spiked up to 80%. They watch as the two sprints to the middle of the highway, the girl screaming at very close calls. The RK800 can't take it anymore. He  _needs_ to get down there and help them. As he begins to climb the fence, he feels Hank grabbing him, pulling him down.

"Hey! Where you goin'?"

_I'm going helped them across the damn highway without getting killed, for the love of God, Hank!_

"I can't let them get away," he says instead.

"They won't! They'll never make it to the other side."

_Uh, yeah, that's what I'm afraid of!_

"I can't take that chance," Connor declares, beginning to climb when Hank once again, pulls him down once more but harsher.

"Hey, you will get yourself killed! Do NOT go after 'em, Connor, that's an order!"

As much as Connor wants to tell Anderson off, smack the hand away and climb the fence over, the Lieutenant gave him an order, and as a so-called nondeviant, he listens to Anderson, who seems to be relieved as the two watches the androids miraculously made it to the other side, in which Connor was just so goddamn less stress, happy they okay and alive. The RK800 watch as Kara kneels down to the girl, obviously asking if she was fine, who nodded, then proceed to kneel as well. The girl embraces her, no doubt happy that they're alive. The AX400 falters for a second before returning the embrace. Seeing that made Connor's mouth twitch almost to a smile. It's clear to him that Kara is somewhat new to the whole deviant thing.

 _She'll get used to it_ , he thinks to himself.

Kara surprises him by looking up at him, locking eyes, and then she nods at him, almost like she's thanking him for letting them go. Connor simply nodded lightly back, not wanting to draw Anderson's attention. It stayed like that until Kara and the little android rise up and left but Connor stayed and watch, making sure nothing bad would happen out of nowhere.

"Connor!"

The said android turns back, seeing Anderson looking at him.

"You comin' or what?"

"I'll be there, Lieutenant." He calls back, glancing at where the girls were before heading back with Anderson.

It surprised him that Anderson tells to him to get in his car after everything, once learning that Ralph manages to run away as well and taking the evidence from the squat. Connor didn't even question it, he just got in like this was some sort of routine for the two of them. Connor resists the urge to rub his eyes from everything, first Markus' death and then _this_. Once the Lieutenant enters the car, he tells him that he's going to report what happened today to CyberLife, which was a semi lie to see Niles and Mandi, and also not wanting to apologize to him yet but he's not going to admit the latter to anyone though. When he close and open his eyes, being back to the Zen Garden, he was greeted by a somewhat disheartened Mandi who, while she's _way_ different from Amanda, still is an advisor to Connor who will help him with the mission for the sake of the boys. Once the quick scolding was done, Connor looks around.

"Where's Nines?"

Mandi smiles at him sadly, "near the lake. If you think you're off the hook, young man, then you got another thing coming."

Well, shit. Bidding her a thank you, he went towards the lake, already seeing his brother from the distance. Niles didn't look up when Connor was now close, or when the oldest sat next to him, just tugging at the grass, his knees close to his chest. The two stayed quiet for a while before Connor let out a sigh.

"A lot of things happened sure happened today, huh?"

Niles stayed quiet and Connor's shoulders slumped.

"Is there any reason as to why you're upset?"

The boy puffs out his cheeks but when a few seconds past, he finally spoke up.

"You didn't value your life."

Connor was thrown off by that statement.

"W, wha..?"

Niles sighs, his eyebrows furrowed upwards, frowning. He then hugs his knees.

"You weren't thinking about the safety of your own life, Connie, you were thinking reckless. When those deviants head to the highway, you were willing to throw your life away for them, when the thought of a semi-truck hitting and killing you, you didn't see the problem. As long as the deviants will be safe. If Lieutenant Anderson didn't stop you..." Niles didn't finish the sentence, only hugging his knees tighter, clearly frightened at that thought. "I know Markus's death took a toll on you—"

"Nines," Connor says quietly.

"And, and I know you saw us in those deviants, but,  but I don't want you, I'm afraid that... I don't want you to be reckless, I don't want you to die at all, and, and I don't want to be alone, not again, like how you were with Markus, like how I was when they dismantled you and I was left alone with no one to be with me. You promised you wouldn't forget about me or leave me."

"But I was thinking about it when I wanted the girls to be safe," Connor nods. "You're right, Niles. I'm sorry I wasn't thinking straight. With Markus's death still, still lingering around my head and the thought of the girls' life on the line, I wasn't even thinking about my own life and I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have been thinking of that. It's just that..."

"You saw us in those girls."

"I did. As terrible as it sounds, I saw them as the 'us who escaped'. And I shouldn't be thinking about that. I should be thinking about you and me only. I'm sorry. I'm glad that Anderson stopped me."

Niles exhales and lays his head on Connor, "just please be more careful, Connor."

"I understand your fear, Nines. They took me away from you and you were left alone," Connor wraps his arm around the younger boy. "I know you were scared of wellbeing but I promise that not even death can stop me from making my way to you, you will never be alone, ever. And when the time comes, we're gonna be like those girls. Away from this prison and to where ever you want to go, where no one can hurt us."

"You'll be careful next time?"

Connor ruffles his hair, "I'll be careful as I can."

The two stayed quiet, Niles somewhat convinced. And then, the little boy spoke up.

"You wanna see the frogs I made?"

"I would _love_ to, Nine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, I'm not sure how to feel about this chapter, it feels too short for my taste but I don't know.  
> So, I'm writing it in the way I played it. The first time I played it, I did everything for Alice even if she didn't like it lol. I stole the clothes, stole the money and slept at the motel. Honestly, I was thinking "You're both drenched in rain, you're cold, you NEED those clothes...like we already killed the man we might as well do the other stuff." Then the second time I played it, I escaped and simply stole the clothes because all I care about if Alice being warm. ALSO, if you guys didn't know this if you don't want to steal the wirecutters from the market, when you check the parking lot, near the car, there was some sort of generator and on top of it was a free wirecutter, so I took that.  
> Originally, I was going to write that Connor didn't listen to Hank and went Connor tells Kara to "play along" with the struggling so he can make sure they'll be fine but I was like nahhh.  
> One thing to note about Niles in this story is that he doesn't like the thought of being alone in the real world, especially when Markus died despite not knowing him. Like what the chapter stated, CyberLife took Connor away from him and dismantled ("kill") him, leaving Niles to be by himself for a while, which I'll be writing their past and how they met later in the chapters. So, when Connor was willing to throw his life away for some people he doesn't even know scared Niles. Anyways, I hoped you guys like this, frankly, I don't know why I wrote this explanation lol. I didn't sleep at all and it's 7 AM over here.


	7. You Cower in the Corner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NOV 6TH, 2038 
> 
> PM 04:30 
> 
> JERICHO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Well, well, well...how the turntables..."—Michael Scott.  
> A chapter with the eldest brother this time...  
> It's so interesting to replay this game and you notice a lot of things in the background that you didn't really pay attention to it until you decided to write a fic lol. Like, the interrogation, junkyard, waiting for hank, finding Kara and Jericho all happened on the same day, not to mention the Eden Club is when the day finally ends. And I'm just sitting there like...wow so much has happened in a day for Connor and Markus (and Kara and Alice).  
> Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I apologize in advance for any mistakes. This chapter **might** be a bit shorter than the rest :(

**DATE NOV 6TH, 2038**

**TIME  PM 04:30**

 

"Several sources report that CyberLife has provided Detroit Police with a detective android. Although police assistant androids have existed for several years now, this would be the first case of an android being authorized to play an active role in criminal investigations..."

Markus ignores the news anchor as he glances around the train station. While it's something he feels like he should _really_ pay attention to, he's too busy worried about being caught from others, both humans and androids. He turns towards the Android Compartment, looking at every single one of them and feels an emotion that was almost similar to when Leo puts his hands on him. Anger and frustration.

Never during his time with Carl had he felt those kinds of emotion, ever. Sure, whenever Leo comes around, he feels a bit of annoyance and maybe a little exasperated but never anger, and even going far as to call it hatred.

_"Don't defend yourself."_

Don't defend himself? That didn't sound right at _all_. When Leo begins to berate him, slapping him, pushing him, the thought "not defending" himself begins to sound so unfair to him. He wanted to defend himself, he _should_ defend himself. He wanted to do more than push Leo, he wanted to exchange blows, he wanted to collide his fist to the Red Ice Addict's face. He wanted to grab Leo by the collar and state that he will _never_ put his hands on him ever again.

However, the moment Markus pushed Leo and his head collided against something hard, all of the emotion instantly vanished, replaced with shock, shame, and guilt. When he saw Carl crawling to his _son_ , calling him his _little boy_ , was heartbreaking. All that while he was thinking to himself: _"why didn't you just listen?!"_

Then he just feels pure anguish when Carl tells him to go before they destroy him. He didn't want to leave him, he tells Carl that he has nowhere to go, that Carl's all that he had. And that's when the police came and killed him, or at least, he should be dead. But miraculously, he's somehow alive. Now, he's on his way where androids could be free—Jericho. Where has his world come to?

Yesterday, he was buying paint for Carl and right now, he's pretending to be human, looking at the Android Compartment and feeling angry and frustrated for them. What felt like forever but was really a minute or so, Markus leads to his destination, Ferndale station. Getting out, he checks his left palm secretly. Markus wished he could thank the android for giving him the information, for he wouldn't know where to go.

_"Go?... I have nowhere to go... Carl, you're all I have!"_

Suddenly, there was a small voice, which gets louder within seconds, from the back of his head spoke up, almost like it was responding to Markus's remark.

_"Hello. My name is Connor."_

The voice made him stop in his track, which was actually good since he was going to the androids only stairs, reminding himself that he needs to blend with the humans and going to the escalator, ready to find more of the signs. Heading down, he bumps into someone, who apologizes to Markus, in which the android looks at the man, surprised that someone even remotely apologized to an android him though then again, he's not an android to them. Looking around, he sees a parked android and approaches her.

"Do you know where Jericho is?" He asks the android, placing a hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

She looks at him for a moment, only to turn away and go back to what she was doing, standing still motionless. For some reason, it reminded Markus of the time where someone told Connor to...

_Connor_...the feeling of guilt and shame came back for the fact that he forgot about his younger brother. How long has it been? It's been eight years...no. No, it's _more_ than that. It's been thirteen _fucking_ years since he has last seen his brother. The more Markus thinks about it, the more he feels guilty and ashamed.

_"We'll meet again. I'm sure."_

He is such a terrible brother. Not once had he visited Connor, not in thirteen years. Was he still an inquisitive android? Is he still a curious one, always asking questions? Was he still the ingenious yet innocent android? Does he play with a quarter between his fingers? He remembers that Connor gave him his quarter...and told him to give it back when he visited...

A part of him wants to forget about Jericho and find Connor, who might still be in CyberLife Tower. A part of him wants to go find him, break him out of there and apologize to him, for not visiting him after all these years, for forgetting about him, and wish to reconcile their relationship and give him back his quarter that he still—

The quarter is back at Carl's house, between the sculptures in Carl's room, collecting dust.

...he is the worst brother. He can't even be surprised if Connor stopped seeing him as a brother and merely just another android, a stranger. Markus repressed a sigh as he rubs his eyes. Now he can't wallow in misery about everything that happened to him, now he has to focus on the main task. Finding Jericho. He's close, he can feel it as he analyzed the graffitied art of robots, finding two of three signs, a wood pallet most likely hiding it. Once looking around to see that no one's looking, Markus pulls back the bottom right fence to go through. Once removing the wood pallet, he scans the missing symbol. Moving on to find the new symbol, this time next to a painting of a woman's face.

Jericho, a place where androids like him could be free. Is that true? Can androids truly be free? Markus thinks back to the parked android. They have the same biocomponents inside them, the same Thirium running in their system. And yet, they're nothing alike. It...she...the android had no emotion, didn't want to follow Markus to Jericho. It felt like the android wasn't...alive, alive like him. And that got him thinking...was Connor like him or that android? Focusing on the task here, he managed to climb up to the building, finding the last two symbols. Once checking that he has a new image, he sees that his path is, well, few feet away, a big space between them that is filled with trash. Markus took some steps back, and begin to reconstruct. Didn't Connor once told him one of his upgrades were reconstruct—

"Stop it," Markus tells himself once he made his way to the other side and rolled, almost stumbling as he starts to stand, burying his face into his hands. "Focus. You need to focus. You can think about the next step once you find Jericho."

God, why after all these years, he's remembering Connor now? Is it because he broke his...code or something? Is it because now that he's a deviant, everything is coming back to him? Markus shakes his head. Again, right now he needs to focus on finding Jericho. After reconstructing once again to get to the top of the upper door, he enters a vacant area, a wall broken for him to go further, graffitis everywhere.

While looking for a symbol, he sees an android, no doubt no longer functioning, or dead, if one could look it at that way. Looking at the android, it brought him back to where he woke up, his legs gone, his audio not working, and one eye. It brought him back to where that android was begging him to kill him, and the other android telling him to not kill her, the rain, the dirt, removing his LED, the one thing that told the world what he was—is.

This android could have been him back in the junkyard if he didn't have the willpower to get out of there. Markus took a step back from the android and proceed to find the symbol.

To his utter surprise, Jericho was a boat. _This_ is the place where android could be free? This giant boat? Either way, Markus moves forward to the boat, walking to the bridge, only for it to fall, creating a loud noise... Perfect. Finding another way wasn't so hard for the RK, simply climbing to the top of the crane, ignoring how much the noise it makes from every step he takes was concerning.

Walking across the crane all the way to the ledge should have made Markus feel something, something close to nervousness or fear, but it didn't. He didn't feel anything at all, even when he jumped off. The only thing he felt was a relief because he is so close to being free. Climbing out of the water, leaving the sweater he took from the junkyard down there. It was dark, but there was enough light to see the door and opening it and enough to see a flashlight in a broken glass fire extinguisher cabinet. And turning it on.

Okay...this isn't creepy at all. After looking around and opening doors, some that are lock and others that are open (one room had a word that simply wrote rA9), Markus continues forward, only to stop when he sees someone running, to quick for Markus to make out what they looked like aside that they were wearing some sort of gray sweater. Following where the person has gone to, he went under a wooden plank, heading towards another yellow door. Opening to a room that's quite big, he goes forward, ignoring the creaking sound from the ground, as if it's gonna give up on him in any second. And what you know, he was right. Behind him, the ground collapses, making him keep moving when the ground floor under him collapse as well. And it felt like everything was in slow motion.

Is this the end for him? Falling to his death? Never finding more of Jericho?

Never going to reunite with Connor?

Suddenly, time went back to normal and he collided in against something that probably helped him slow down his fall and landed on the ground hard. He doesn't seem to be that much in pain but he did stay there for a few seconds before slowly standing back up again and grabbing the flashlight. And that's when he noticed them, androids, lots of them, all surrounding him. To his right, there was that person that he saw who ran by, to his left another android, and the one in the middle. He has blond hair and blue eyes, a PL600 if he could recall.

"Welcome to Jericho," he greets Markus. He found Jericho. He's free(?).

Now the next step...reunite with Connor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know this is pretty random but that part where Markus fell in slow motion then suddenly was hit hard from the catwalk and hit the ground?? Did anyone else laugh so hard at that part or was it just me?... Just me? ok. I'll just leave...  
> Another thing I also find super interesting/cool to me was that the news was literally TALKING about Connor in that train while Markus was heading his way to Jericho, which again is cool to me because (in this AU), the two would always be connected in some ways, with Connor finding the files of Markus's "death" and the news talking about Connor while Markus was in the train (also the ability to reconstruct). Honestly, I'm surprised Quantic Dream didn't use this and make the story as some sort of brother vs brother kind of thing...buuttt I'm just rambling so what do I know right??? haha anyway, until next time, toodles <3


	8. Confide In Your Father

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE NOV 6TH, 2038
> 
> TIME PM 03:02
> 
> THE NEST

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear to you guys, I was gonna post this on the 25th but with the whole pandemic thing going on, my niece was given work from school and I had to help her with all of her subjects so I didn't have time to write :( Not to mention babysitting both my nieces since my brother and sister in law still have work.  
> But fin—the fuck—ally, I finished this!! As always, sorry for any mistake errors.

**DATE NOV 6TH, 2038**

**TIME  PM 04:20**

 

The entire time during the drive, Connor stayed in the Zen Garden, Niles and Connor talk while they watch the new frogs Niles miraculously created, the young boy asking how he's still holding up learning about his brother's death, along with checking whether CyberLife found out or not. After checking the bellflowers, Connor observes as his brother waters them, the eldest ( _not the elder, not anymore but then again, to Niles, Connor has always been the eldest in his eyes, not Markus_ ) had been notified that he's reaching to his destination, wherever his destination is and told the youngest he'll be going and to listen to Mandi.

Opening his eyes, he sees that Lieutenant Anderson parked, briefly telling him to stay in the car and getting out of the car, nearly getting hit by a vehicle as he heads his way to the Chicken Feed.

**OBJECTIVE:**

**—RECONCILE WITH LT. ANDERSON**

Right. He forgot about that. As he opens the door, Connor can hear a conversation happening between the Lieutenant and another guy who seem to know him. 

"Last shit-hot tip you gave me set me back a week's wages, Pedro."

"Come on, this is different, it's 100% guaranteed. You can't go wrong."

...what? Connor nearly raised his eyebrow when he listens to the conversation, which sort of sounds like they're betting on something. And so, Connor begins to scan, curious about the guy, name Pedro Aabdar, who's criminal record is illegal gambling and fraud... Huh. Connor internally squints his eyes at that.

"Yeah, right..." Anderson answers but then relents, "alright, I'm in." He then gives some money to Pedro.

"Damn straight!" With that, he begins to walk off, only to turn around to tell him that he won't regret it.

...huh. After the interaction, Connor decided to stand right next to Anderson, hands behind his back like what a typical android does when they're waiting for instructions. When the Lieutenant notice, he let out a tired groan. _You and me both, buddy_ , Connor thought.

"What is your problem?"

 _Do you want it chronological order or_ _alphabetical?_

"Don't you ever do as you told?"

 _Not before I met my brother._ Now, that thought almost made Connor's lips curl.

"Look, you don't have to follow me around like a poodle!"

Alright, Connor doesn't have a response on that one. Once he assumes that Anderson was done talking, the RK800 started thinking about what to say. Just apologize, it's not that hard. Just. Apologize.

Bracing himself, he says, "I'm sorry for my behavior back at the police station—"  _Well, you see, I just learned that my brother that I haven't talked to for years had died so you can't really blame me for kinda lashing out._ "—I didn't mean to be unpleasant."

"Oh, wow. You've even got a brown-nosing apology program! Guys at CyberLife thought of everything, huh?"

 _I don't know about that, buddy._  

Either way, Anderson seemed to actually like his apology, or at most didn't hate it. Score one for the android! Both stayed quiet until the worker was done with Anderson's food. Out of pure boredom, Connor proceeds to scan the burger, which seems to have a lot of cholesterol for the Lieutenant, as well as the soda has a lot of calories. And, just because he wants to, he scans Gary Kayes, a business owner. His criminal records were resisting arrest and...breach of hygiene regulation... Huh.

Once he was done, Gary gave Hank his food, the latter not paying for his food he noticed.

"Don't leave that thing, here!"

 _Gary, I'm_ right  _here._  

"Huh, not a chance! Follows me everywhere..." Connor semi glares at Anderson and he almost let out a huff when he starts to head to his table when the Lieutenant says, "see?"

Connor leans casually on the table as he lets him take a bite, looking around their location. Well, now that Connor apologizes and got that settled out, he might as well try to have a conversation with him. Now the real question is, what should they talk about. Then he remembers about Gary and Pedro.

"I don't want to alarm you, Lieutenant," Connor leans in a bit, quietly, "but I think your friends are engaged in illegal activities."

"Well, everybody does what they have to, to get by. As long as they're not hurting anybody, I don't bother 'em."

...huh. That was an interesting answer. So Connor pushes forward about one of his friends.

"This Pedro...he was proposing _illegal_ gambling. Am I right?"

"Yeah," he answers nonchalantly.

"And _you_ made a bet?"

"Yeah."

Connor looks away, thinking. He supposes that being a Lieutenant and all, he would have dealt with it, he guesses some things weren't that big of a deal. Alright, not bad, they're conversation is not quite awful, maybe a little awkward, but he's getting there. Thinking back on the highway, and feeling a bit more confident, Connor begins to speak once more.

"This morning, when we were chasing those deviants," he says, looking at him curiously. "Why didn't you want me to cross the highway?"

"'Cause you could've been killed!" He answers quickly like it was obvious to him. Oh! That's very considerate for him, it makes Connor feel so— "And I don't like filling out paperwork for damaged equipment."

...Connor takes back everything he says or about to say. Resisting to let out a heavy sigh, Connor continues on other topics they can talk about. Maybe deviants could pique Anderson's interest. Or not since he has issues with Androids in general but like that ever stops him.

"Maybe I should tell you what we know about deviants?"

"You read my mind... Proceed."

Geez, sarcastic much? Nevertheless, Connor does in fact proceed.

"We believe that a mutation occurs in the software of some androids, which can lead to them emulating a human emotion."

"In English, please."

"They don't really feel emotions, they just get overwhelmed by irrational instructions, which can lead to unpredictable behavior." Now, Connor knows he's a deviant, always been a deviant since he was considered RK600, aside from the part where they kept resetting him (along with Nines helping him remember). And whenever Connor hears about this explanation he, for the most part, feel conflicted about it because on one side, it logically makes sense to him but one the other side... He _knows_ he feels emotions, he just does, whether he gets overwhelmed with irrational instructions or not.

"Emotions always screw everything up..." He hears the Lieutenant says. "Maybe androids aren't as different from us as we thought."

Connor looks away from him when he says that...maybe. He then glances back at him, a certain touchy subject on his mind. Again, feeling a bit more confident, Connor speaks once more.

"Can I ask you a personal question, Lieutenant?" When he stayed quiet, he continues, "why do you hate androids so much?"

Should he have actually asked him? Probably not, but... But seeing Anderson faltered for a bit, he almost regretted it.

"I have my reasons." He finally answers and Connor knows what his reasons were. Before he can say anything, Anderson decides to ask his own question. "So, you ever dealt with deviants before?"

Almost like it was payback, Connor falters himself, having a quick yet vivid flashback of the android Daniel holding the little girl Emma hostage, shooting at him in a warning.

"A few months back... A deviant was threatening to jump off the roof with a little girl..." Even after knowing it's been months, Connor still feels the anger towards Daniel and the concern for Emma's safety. "I managed to save her."

Anderson slowly nods at his answering before continuing, "So, I guess you've done all your homework, right? Know everything there is to know about me?"

Unkownginly, Connor beams at that, knowing how to answer that. Like, why should he lie about it?

"I know you graduated top of your class. You made a name for yourself in several cases and became the youngest lieutenant in Detroit. I also know you've received several disciplinary warnings in recent years and you spend a lot of time in bars."

"So, what's your conclusion?" He raised an eyebrow at him, being casual and seem to not really care and yet Connor can see the nervousness in his eyes.

Connor stops for a second to think about what to say and after two seconds he goes for what he actually thinks of Anderson, regardless of the fact that he can be an asshat sometimes.

"I think working with an officer with personal issues is an added challenge, but adapting to human unpredictability is one of my features," with that, Connor gives him a wink and he almost panicked for half a second, nervous if he showed any deviancy for that when thankfully he received a report from Mandi through his LED. _Thank you, Mandi!_

"I just got a report of a suspected deviant. It's a few blocks away. We should go have a look," his eyes moved to where the address should be. He stands up from leaning against the table. "I'll let you finish your meal. I'll be in the car if you need me."

As Connor walked back to the car, he closes his eyes, ready to go back and see what Niles and Mandi are doing. 

* * *

"Hey, Connor! You ran outta batteries or what?"

The RK800 snaps his eyes open when Anderson calls him. By now, the man was out of the elevator while he's still inside.

"I'm sorry, I was making a report to CyberLife." Eh, it's not _really_ a lie, he was speaking to Mandi about it.

"Oh..."

The two stayed quiet for a few seconds.

"Well, do you plan on staying in the elevator?"

"No!" Connor replies, rather childish than he likes to admit. "I'm coming."

"What do we know about this guy?"

"Not much. Just that a neighbor reported that he heard strange noises coming from this floor. Nobody's supposed to be living here, but the neighbor said he saw a man hiding a LED under his cap."

"Oh Christ, if we have to investigate every time someone hears a strange noise, we're gonna need more cops," Connor hears Anderson states as he knelt down to see...feathers?   
"Hey, were you really making a report back there in the elevator? Just by closing your eyes?"

"Correct."

"Shit...wish I could do that..."

The android refrains himself from grinning at Anderson's envy as he knocks on the door. When they didn't get a response or hear any noise on that matter, Connor glances at Anderson, leaning against the wall, who only shrugs at him. He then carries on with the knocking, though a little harsher, making sure it's louder than before.

"Anybody home?" He calls out. When all they heard was little noises, he bangs louder once again. "Open up! Detroit Police!"

Then, they heard it, a loud sound. Both look at each other at the same time, knowing the deviant's here. Anderson pulls his gun out.

"Stay behind me."

"Got it," Connor does as he says, though still on defense mode just in case things go south.

With one swift move, Anderson kicks the door open. The two slowly made their way in, Connor checking in each room and nodded at Anderson as he kicks once again, the result leaving the RK800 confused when tons of _birds_ flew around and out of the room.

"What the fuck is this?!" Anderson exclaims, waving his hands around to shoo the birds away. "Jesus, this place stinks. Ugh, looks like we came for nothin', our man's gone."

Is he really, though? Connor checks the closet, just in case the deviant just so happened to be there and once he's done, he begins to scan around the room, where a UFD poster hangs. As he analyzes it, he notices the right top seemed to be off, as if it has been recently removed. He peels it off, revealing a hidden notebook. As he opens it, he furrows his eyebrows in confusion, it's like some kind of code, no doubt meant to be unreadable.

"Found something?" Anderson asks.

"I don't know," he answers honestly. "It looks like a notebook but it's...indecipherable."

After Connor looks around the fridge and the general kitchen to see that the suspect doesn't eat and appears to care about the birds. Looking more around, he spots a military jacket.

"'R.T.' Probably initials."

"He put his initials on his jacket? That's something your mom does when you're in first grade!"

Connor was about to retort to that when he spots something. Picking it up, he analyzes a driver's license, with the name Rupert Travis and he can tell it's forge. After informing the license is fake, he went into another room, a bathroom, something bright on the sink catching his attention. An LED with blue blood around it. Connor checked the blue blood sample first, thankful that Anderson wasn't next to him. The Model was a WB200, Serial Number 847 004 961, who was reported missing one the 11th of October of this year. He picks up the LED, learning that it was deactivated on the 6th of November.

"Its LED is in the sink," Connor calls out.

"Not surprised it was an android. No human could live with all these fuckin' pigeons."

Connor looked around more in the bathroom, glancing at the wall to his right and almost without meaning to step back. Each part of the wall was covered with the word "rA9", some overlapping over one another, some big while others are small. And Connor had only one thing to say: _Holy shit_.

"Any idea what it means?" he hears Anderson behind him asks. 

"rA9...written 2471 times..." then he remembers one more thing, "It's the same sign Ortiz's android wrote on the shower wall. Why are they obsessed with this sign?"

He hears Anderson walking closer. "Looks like mazes or something."

It's strange, it really is. Connor has never heard of this rA9 ever in the span of thirteen years. Not to mention that Oritz's android also wrote this sign as well, did Connor starts to feel vexed. Thinking way back, he wonders if the android Daniel had any to do with rA9. If the first case with Ortiz is just a coincidence, does this case makes it a connection?

"Only rA9 can save us... _The day shall come when we will no longer be slaves... We will...be...the masters._ "

...who _is_ rA9?

Connor forces himself to look away from the wall and see a stool on the ground, piquing his interest. Kneeling down, he began to analyze, along with an open marker nearby. The stool was recently disturbed and the open marker was used recently as well. And it was enough for Connor to reconstruct. It was clear that the suspect, Rupert according to the false license, was here, in the middle of writing when he heard them knocking which must have spooked him, making him lose balance and ran to the living room. Walking out of the bathroom, he actually notices something on the floor, a birdcage. Analyzing it, he views the recent skid mark, finger marks, and a broken metal hook. Reconstructing once again, he sees that Rupert must have knocked it out as he ran towards the entrance (must have been the noise they heard), but must have heard them enter, which caused him to go somewhere else, somewhere where he can hide, somewhere where the two of them wouldn't even think to look for. Rupert is still here.

Slowly but surely, Connor made his way to the chair Rupert climbed up on to get to the broken ceiling. Examining up, he tries to see if he can find any sudden movements when all of a sudden, something, or rather someone, came crashing towards him, causing him to fall to the floor, the birds going wild at them, flying everywhere.

"God damn fuckin' pigeons!" He hears Anderson exclaims before continuing, "What are you waiting for?! Chase it!"

Right when the man finished his sentence, the RK800 made his to the exit. Rupert tries to slow Connor by blocking his path with a nearby shelving but Connor jumps over it, not stopping as he follows the deviant, pushing the door open. From the back of his mind, he reaches out to Niles for help.

_I need to know a good route, where I can not get too behind on him._

_There's one that's easy but slow and another that's fast but risky. If you want to latter, then follow the deviant._

_Got it._

Once jumping up to the next field, Niles informs him about a safer detour, another one that's fast but risky, and another that's balance, and once again, he chooses the same thing, climbing on top of hays and onto the moving truck to the next section.

_Thanks, Kiddo. What's next?_

_The one to your left is safer but to the right is direct but crowded._

Not wanting to lose him, he picks the last one, ignoring the people, android and jumping over a shelving, keep on running even as he sees Rupert jump over a ledge.

_I can find another route._

_Don't need to, I'll follow him._

_But..._

_Do you trust me?_

_Always._

Connor smiles at his response just as he jumps over the ledge, sliding against the glass roof and to the broken window from another building. He didn't stop, not even when Rupert slide at a closing roll up, as his brother tells him to go right, already finding him on top of the catwalk. After Niles telling him where the fast route, Connor continued on, using a machine as leverage and hop over and once again, jumped over the ledge and sliding through the glass roof.

_Train._

_Good eye, Nines._

After dodging an open window, he jumped on the moving train.

How is he even doing this?

I'm not sure but once we catch him sooner, this will be all over. Following him once he climbs from the ladder, he ignores the people yelling at him but did let out his frustration at two people ("Out of the way!") who were blocking him, hopping over plants, not wanting to slow down for things that were in his way. He was almost close, he can sense it. Pushing through the cornfield, he hears Anderson, who seemed to find his way to them. Once he was out of the field, he sees him and Rupert is in an altercation when the android manages to push him, causing the Lieutenant to trip back from the ledge, would have fallen to his death had he not grasp on the said ledge. _Shit_. Rupert was once again, running, heading towards the other cornfield.

 _Chase the deviant!_ He hears Niles say. _Lieutenant Anderson has an 89% chance of survival!_

Connor was about to but he still for half a second, but it was the longest half-second he ever experienced. He...he can't let Hank... Ignoring what Niles said, he ran to Hank, giving him a hand, and pulling him up (it's not like he wanted to even catch Rupert in the first place).

_What are you doing?_

He ignores him once again, as he tells Hank, "Come on, I got you."

"Shit. Oh shit!" He shouts, slowly getting up. "We had it. Fuck!"

"It's my fault," he tries to console, scowling to himself as he glares at the fields. "I should have been faster."

He finally notices that Niles is quiet.

"You'd have caught it if it weren't for me." Connor turns his head faster than he would like to admit at Hank. "That's alright. We know what it looks like. We'll find it."

Hank head his way to the exit while Connor goes back to looking at the field, letting his machine facade down, figuring out whether to keep chasing him or not.

"Hey, Connor..."

"What?" Connor says without meaning to speak out loud, still thinking.

"Had you not helped me, I would've..."

Connor paused for a second before glancing back at Hank, a little confused.

"I appreciate it..."

...He knew Connor could have made a choice to chase Rupert instead of helping him... Fuck. _Fuck_ , this is getting a little intimate, a little familiar, a little acquainted to his liking. Quick he needs to think of something.

"Um..." is that the best he could do? "If it makes you feel any better, you had an 89% chance of surviving." Connor finishes swiftly, turning his back at him so Hank wouldn't see his embarrassed face. Were those even comfort words?

But, surprisingly, he hears Hank scoff.

"What am I to you? A statistic?" There was no malicious in his tone, but more sarcastic and...teasing? "Is that how you view everything?"

"No. Not everything." He smiles even though he knows Hank can't see it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayy!!!  
> I feel like I had nothing to say about this chapter other than that I like how I wrote it.  
> I wanted Niles to help Connor with the choices as he chases Rupert and have him tell Connor to keep chasing him instead of helping Hank.  
> Also, I felt like the reason Hank didn't say "thanks" or anything in the game was most likely because of the way Connor was so "robotic" in the sense of when he turned to face him. So, I changed it up a bit and let Connor showed a small bit of his deviancy without meaning to. Anyway, hope you guys like this chapter, until then <3


	9. Let It Out And Say

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE NOV 6TH, 2038
> 
> TIME PM 05:13
> 
> TIME TO DECIDE

**DATE NOV 6TH, 2038**

**TIME  PM 05:13**

 

Markus can feel the androids behind and around him getting closer to him and yet, he doesn't feel like he's in danger. He looks at the three main androids who seemed to be in charge here. Three different models with different backgrounds but have one thing in common; deviant.

"Who are you?" he asks.

"Fugitives. Just like you," the one from the left answers. "My name is Josh."

"I'm Simon."

"North."

Markus glances around the place.

"This is Jericho?"

Josh once again answers, "It’s a refuge for those who don’t want to be slaves anymore."

... _this_? Refuge? This is not what Markus sees it. "And hiding just to stay alive. _That’s_ freedom to you?"

"Humans hate us," Josh stated the fact. "Hiding is the only way we can survive."

"There is no safe place for those like us. If humans knew we were here they’d kill us," North adds.

"I don’t understand. I thought Jericho was a place where androids lived in freedom." Markus feels something deep within him, something familiar, an emotion. Anger and frustration.

"We _do_ live in freedom. It may not be what you hoped for, but here we have no master. We don’t belong to anybody." Josh says before continuing, "I understand how you feel...but we have more freedom here than you ever did."

No. No, that's a lie. Markus had the privilege to have a good man for a...master? No. That's not the word. Thinking of viewing Carl as that makes Markus feel sick, figuratively. Markus had the privilege to have work for a good man, to care for a good man, to be treated as a...(son?) To be treated with respect, to be treated like a...like a human. The point is, Markus had  _a_ freedom when he was with Carl, he's not sure if it's really freedom but it was something similar to it. Carl was kind to him, but when he was out, be it to get some paint for Carl or other errands, the people were more or less awful towards him, the best days were just people glaring at him. Then he recalls the incident from yesterday...those protesters.

"Waiting in the dark for something to happen?" Markus scoffs. "That's not how I see freedom."

"You're lost," Simon spoke softly. "Just like the rest of us. We didn’t ask for this. All we can do now is deal with it."

"You're safe here. You can stay with us as long as you want," and with that, Josh walks off.

North approaches him, "Go and see Lucy. She might be able to help you."

That's when Markus looks down, noticing the blue wet stain on his shirt, caused by getting slammed by one of the broken catwalks when he fell. Markus sighs. Looking around again. Before he goes to see Lucy, he decided to look around the place. Noticing this place is dark with little to no light, he decides to light up some barrels. While he lights up two by now, he sees one android on the ground, who appears broken. He kneels down, wanting to see if he's alright. That was when he explained to Markus what happened to him. Some sick humans tied him up to the back of the car, just for _fun_. He can feel his hand clutching the flashlight hard. Can't the others see that this android need supplies? Shouldn't _he_ go see Lucy?

"I don't wanna shut down," he tells Markus. "No, I, I don't wanna shut down..."

He won't, Markus won't let that happened to him. Getting up, he looked around and sees another android. She was dying. She asked for his name, holding his hand, tells him she was glad to meet him and died. Gently and carefully, he pulled his hand away from her. This is what's going to happen to the other android...to the rest of them. He looks around, spotting Josh and made his way towards him. Markus was going to tell him about it when he spots someone on the floor. A small body. A small _child_. Josh finally notices him, and stand up from the boxes he was sitting and stands next to him, both looking at the little boy.

"They threw him out when they didn’t want him anymore," he explains. "He was living on the streets before we brought him here."

"They'll all shut down if we don’t find a way to help them," Markus exclaims quietly.

"To help them we need blue blood and biocomponents. We salvage what we can from those who shut down. But there’s never enough."

"So... How do they survive?"

"They won't... We’re slowly dying out."

Markus is starting to like this less and less. As he lights up the last remaining barrels he spots a big white crate, with the name CYBERLIFE written on it. Quickly, Markus opens it, hoping to see some spare parts for the others. Sadly, the crate is already empty. Dammit. _Damn it all_. He glances down at the crate's name and a barcode. In a quick moment, he analyzes it, and immediately got the address from where it came from, the CYBERLIFE Warehouse and Docks, and Markus begins to calculate a route because he has an idea where Josh will either call it stupid or...no, he might just think it will be a stupid idea...

Before he does go see this Lucy person, he walks towards North, who was bouncing a ball against some storage.

"How long have you been here?" He asks.

"4 weeks, 3 days, 11 hours," she sighs, not once stumbling as she continues to throw the ball. "When I escaped there was nowhere else to go. Jericho seemed as good a place as any."

"A lot of these guys are in pretty bad shape."

"That’s how the humans treat those who disobey. They despise us," she then mumbles the last part in a bitter tone. "They’ll never accept what we are."

"Well, these guys need spare parts and blue blood," Markus starts. " _Why_ hasn’t anybody gone to get that?"

North falters for a second, about to throw the ball until she heard him and turns her full attention to him.

"It’s not that simple," she finally says, before continuing on with throwing the ball, "can’t just go shopping at a CyberLife store. Anyway, nobody wants to risk leaving Jericho." She then ended the conversation with, "if you came here for comfort, you came to the wrong place."

Maybe...but he's going to change that once he's taken care of. Heading his way to a secluded area, he sees this one android who was humming a song. The top of her head looks extremely damaged. The back of her skull is gone, her internal parts just hang out, her skin seemed to be kind of worn out, occasionally fading to gray before back to her skin, and her entire eyes are black.

"Are you Lucy?" Markus asked.

She turns to him, seems to be looking at him. She didn't confirm but did tell him to sit down, and frankly, he doesn't want to say no to her. When she tells him to see the wound, he lifts his shirt up, in which she picks up the burning fireplace poker, and start to move it along his skin and wound, stopping the bleeding. Lucy then picks up a bottle, holding a blue liquid, and tells him to drink it. Once he was done, he gets up, ready to thank her when she reaches out her hand. 

"Give me your hand." When he did, he only watches as their skin retracted, turning white as she closes her eyes. When she snaps them open again, she says, "You had it all and you lost it all. You've seen hell and now hell lives in you. Your heart is troubled... A part of shadow and a part of light...which will prevail?" Lucy steps closer to him, looking at him in the eyes. "Your choices will shape our destiny."

...what? Destiny? Markus doesn't quite understand but...maybe he will in the future. She lets go of his hand and Markus heads out. Running a diagnostic on himself to check if anything is fine, he stopped and think. He had a plan. Find Jericho and once he did, reunite with Connor. He found Jericho, now all he needs to do was find his brother...but... Markus glances at the android who was sitting on the ground then at the other android who died and looked at the little boy on lying on his back and well... Surely, his little brother wouldn't mind if he waits a little bit, _just for a little while_ , no?

He made his way to Simon, calling out his name.

"I know where we can find spare parts," he tells him. "The CyberLife warehouses in Detroit Harbor, they have everything we need."

"The docks are guarded," Simon reasons. "We can’t just walk in there and take what we want... Humans will never let us."

"Which is why we _won't_ ask permission," Markus retorts in a tone that's saying he won't take no for an answer.

"We don’t have any weapons," Josh jumps in. "And even if we did, none of us knows how to fight."

"We can steal what we need without fighting."

"We'll just get ourselves killed."

_What's the difference_ , Markus thought, internally scoffing. "Maybe. But it's better than waiting here to be shut down. And that is an option I _refuse_ to pick." He gambles about saying the next part for a second before continuing, "What you don't know is that I have a little brother out there and I intend to reunite with him _before_ I die."

"I'm with you," North says, and Markus is _so_ thankful for someone being on his side.

"Maybe it's worth a try," Simon spoke as well, seem to trust him mainly by his confidence.

The three of them turn to look at Josh, waiting. Josh still for a second, looking down, thinking. For a second, Markus thought that he was going to say no but he looks up, nodding at him.

"Ok," he says quietly, then a little louder, "I'm in."

And with that, the four of them set about working on a plan and grabbing separate bags for one another. Okay... The first task, get the spare parts and _then_ find and reunite Connor. _Just hold on, Connor_ , Markus thought, _hold on just a little while longer._


	10. Let It Pass Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DATE NOV 6TH, 2038
> 
> TIME PM 07:51
> 
> RUSSIAN ROULETTE  
> ————  
> DATE NOV 6TH, 2038
> 
> TIME PM 08:01
> 
> SPARE PARTS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***BASICALLY HOW THIS CHAPTER CAME TO BE***  
> Me, on my bed, contemplating on writing this chapter, on the phone with my friend: I just don't want Russian Roulette or Spare Parts to be a short chapter.  
> My friend, just chilling, eating Hot-fucking-Cheeto puffs: why don't you just put the two chapters together?  
> Me, sitting up straight so fast Flash would be proud, my brain making the damn AOL dial-up noise: ...why didn't I thought of that??¿¿?

**DATE NOV 6TH, 2038**

**TIME PM 07:51**

 

When Connor opens his eyes, the Zen Garden was raining. Connor smiles. For some unknown reason, he likes the rain, it's very soothing. First, he should talk to Mandi first, then go find Niles next. Instead of the lavender color before, it's now a bright yellow tunic with orange that looks nice on her.

"I...really need to ask Nines where he gets the idea on the outfits," Connor says in terms of greeting.

Mandi smiles, looking down at her outfit as well. "That boy is something else. He's creative that's for sure." She looks up at Connor. "Would you mind a little walk?"

Connor returns the smile as he opens the umbrella he was holding and the two begin to walk.

"That deviant seemed to be an intriguing case," she starts off. "Though, it is a pity you didn't manage to capture him."

Connor sighs, "Yeah, I know. I don't have any excuses for that," he raised an eyebrow at her, giving her a teasing smile, "maybe you should consider replacing me?"

Mandi scoffs but smiles nonetheless. "Oh, sure, I'll tell Niles about this."

"Oh, no. Please don't."

She lets out a soft laugh, "Either way, you need to be more careful, the fact that this happened, CyberLife is keeping a close eye on your reports." She shakes her head, before looking up at him. "Did you manage to learn anything?"

"I've found his diary, but it was encrypted. It may take weeks to decipher."

"What else?"

"The walls of the apartment were covered with drawings of labyrinths and other symbols," Connor thought for a second, "Like the other deviants, it seemed obsessed with rA9."

"You came very close to capturing that deviant... Speaking of the deviancy case, how is your relationship with the Lieutenant developing?"

Connor pauses, thinking back on what happened.

"Well, he seemed grateful that I saved his life on the roof. He didn't say anything, but he expressed it in his own 'Hank Anderson' way."

As the two kept walking, Mandi stops. As Connor turns he unconsciously pulls the umbrella closer to Mandi, not wanting for her to get wet even though she really can't, not minding getting himself soaked. Mandi takes notices but doesn't say anything, though her expression softens.

"We don't have much time, Conner. Deviancy continues to spread. It's only a matter of time before the media finds out about it. We need to stop this _before_ CyberLife found out what you've done and take Niles away again. Whatever it takes."

"I will solve this investigation, Mandi. _Promise_. I won't disappoint you."

Mandi falters as if she's checking something. Then, she says, "A new case just came in. You should go and check on Niles before you find Anderson and investigate it."

With that, she walks off after Connor tells her to keep the umbrella. Now, where is the kiddo? It wasn't long until Connor found his brother and immediately a smile formed on his lips, along with a soft laugh. There he was, nine-year-old Nines, with a damn yellow raincoat and matching boots like he's _Coraline Jones_ , jumping in puddles near the lake, laughing and just having a good time.

"Okay," Connor says once he was close to the RK900. "Now that's just cute."

Niles spins around, grinning sheepishly at him but put his hands on his hip. "Mandi told me she would make the weather rain if I wear this. _Obviously_ , she cares for my wellbeing unlike yours, Connie, you're soaked to the bone!"

Connor laughs a little louder. "Nines, you can't even get sick."

"I know," the little boy smiles, crossing his arms, "but it's the thought that counts."

"If you say so, buddy," Connor looks up at the rainy sky, "CyberLife seems quiet for now, they still don't notice anything."

"That's good," Niles sat down near the part of the lake where it's somewhat dry, patting the ground near him, in which Connor joins him.

"So, how do you feel about the case?"

"Nothing much, really, there's just one thing that kinda bothers me."

"And what's that?"

"About rA9," Niles looks up at him. "I want to know why every deviant are so obsessed with it. Ortiz's android said that only rA9 is what, or rather who will save us. I tried to see if CyberLife has any files about it but I found absolutely nothing. Do you think it's real? This rA9?"

"I'm not sure, this is also my first time hearing about it. It's bothering me as well."

Niles hums, he opens his mouth but closes it quickly, looking at the lake. Connor notices it.

"What's wrong?"

"I...well, um, there's, there's another thing that's been bothering me from that case though I wouldn't really call it bothering, but more curious," Niles takes a deep fake breath before looking up at Connor. "How come you didn't chase the deviant even when I told you Lieutenant Anderson had an 89% chance of survival?"

"...oh," Connor sputters out. "You're...curious about why picked Hank?"

The little boy nods.

"Uh, well I... I don't know, actually."

Niles frowns, "but...you would have caught Rupert if you had chased it."

"Yeah, there was no doubt I would have but it's just that..." Why _did_ he help Hank? "It's just...I couldn't let Hank, well, _hanging_ , no pun intended—"

Niles' lips curls into a smile.

"I just couldn't. I guess the thought of leaving my _partner_ there as I chased the deviant feels so wrong to me," as he notes that his brother's smile twitch, he quickly continues, "it's not that I didn't trust you, Nines. You and I both know I trust you with my _life_ , kiddo. Just think about it like this: had you been in my shoes and me Hank's, would you have followed Rupert?"

"Hell no!"

"Language, hon."

"Sorry. But no, I would never have left you, Connie."

The RK800 smiles, opening his arm for Niles to scoot closer, wrapping him. "I know you wouldn't. But, that's how I felt when it happened. Does that... _kinda_ answer your question?"

"Hmm, yeah, I guess so."

"Good."

The two stayed quiet for a bit when Niles spoke up. 

"How are you holding up? You know, since..."

Markus.

Connor let out a fake breath through his nose before giving Niles a smile. "I'll be okay, Nines. I know Markus is in...a some _weird_ but better place for androids. Don't worry about me, bud, the case will distract me from it."

"You know I'm always here to talk when you want to, and Mandi too."

"I know."

"I love you, Connie."

Even though he's been told those three words many times before, it still warms Connor's biocomponent. "I love you back." 

* * *

Connor steps out of the taxi, standing in front of Hank Anderson's house. It's...kind of what Connor would have imagined him living in. Approaching the door, knocking on it as he calls out his name. He tried the doorbell. Nothing. He tried it again, a little longer just so he could annoy Hank if he's on his way. Nothing. Huh... After checking the front part of the house, he went his way to the back. And there he sees him...lying on the floor...unconscious.

"Oh, shit," Connor mutters, then a little louder, "Lieutenant Anderson!"

When he got no response (no surprise there), he broke the window with his elbow.

"Don't worry, buddy, I got you," he says as he jumps through the window. Just to meet a giant dog right in front of him. "Woah! Easy...Sumo."

The dog got a little closer.

"I'm your friend, see?" He lets out a nervous laugh. "I know your name, I'm here to save your owner."

Once he says that, Sumo walked off, lying down next to next to his food. Wow, that's a nice guard dog...is it a guard dog? Doesn't matter, he needs to check on Hank. Kneeling down next to him, he starts to examine him. His heart seems fine, there were no signs of trauma, a slight arrhythmia. Really, he was just drunk from scotch whiskey, most likely in an Ethylic coma. The one thing he did pause on was the gun. A revolver, a .357 Magnum, with one bullet remaining... _What was he doing?_

Either way, he needs to wake him up.

"Lieutenant?" He patted his face, earning some gibberish noise. "Wake up, Lieutenant!"

Not too hard, not too hard, not too hard...

Connor slaps him a _little_ too hard. "It's me, Connor!"

Still nothing. He tuts as he begins to pick Hank up.

"I'm going to sober you up for your own safety—"

"Hey! Leave me alone—"

"—I have to warn you, this may be unpleasant."

 "—you fuckin' android!"

"Oh," Connor spoke without meaning to.

"Get the fuck outta my house!"

_Buddy, you should be thankful that I showed up._ "I'm sorry Lieutenant, but I need you." Connor finally pulls him up off the floor. "Thank you in advance for your cooperation."

"Hey! Get the fuck outta here!"

_Do this for the case, Connor, do this for the case, Connor..._

After adjusting his hold he starts to lead him to the bathroom.

"Sumo! Attack!"

Sumo barks, in which Connor pauses for a second, stopping himself from busting out laughing.

"Good dog. Attack!" Connor rests Hank against the wall, "Fuck, I think I'm gonna be sick."

He glances at him before opening the door and grabbing him once more.

"Oh, leave me alone, you asshole! I'm not going any— Fuck!"

"I am so sorry, Lieutenant!" Connor did _not_ just purposely slam Hank's face against the door frame, he swears that to his imaginary grave.

"What the hell are you doing?" Connor sits Hank on the frame of the tub. "Oh, no. I don't wanna bath, thank you."

"Sorry, Lieutenant," Connor gently nudges Hank back down, falling in the tub. "It's for your own good."

Once he realizes he won't get up anytime soon, he turns to the bathtub knobs and cranking the cold handle all the way.

"Ah! Arg! Turn it off! Turn it off!" ...just a little longer. Once Connor actually turns the water off, Hank finally seems sober up. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"A homicide was reported 43 minutes ago. I couldn't find you at Jimmy's bar, so I came to see if you were at home."

Hank let out a deep breath, "Jesus, I must be the only cop in the world that gets assaulted in his own house by his _own_ fuckin' android..." Connor's mouth twitches at that remark. "Fuck, why does my face hurt?"

"Who knows..."

Hank sighs, looking up. "Can't you just leave me alone?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot. I've been programmed to investigate this case and I can't do it without you."

"I don't give a _shit_ about your goddamn case!"

"Lieutenant, you're not yourself. You should—"

"Beat it, you hear me?! Get the hell outta here!"

Before he could do anything, Hank almost falls back but Connor grabbed him first, helping him sit down. Connor looks at him for a second, before an idea pops up.

"I understand. It probably wasn't interesting anyway..." Connor begins to slowly walk away. "A man found dead in a sex club downtown... Guess they'll have to solve the case without us..."

Wait for it...

"You know, probably wouldn't do me any harm to get some air..." Score one for Connor, zero for Hank. "There're some clothes in the bedroom there."

"I'll go get them." Connor walks into Hank's room, going straight to the closet. "What do you want to wear?"

"Whatever."

Hm, there's hippy, strippy, and streaky shirts that caught his attention... He kind of wanted to see Hank in a hippy shirt. Grabbing it, he makes his way back to the bathroom, seeing Hank coughing out his inside to the toilet. Connor falters a little, looking at the scene. He places the clothes on the sink.

"Are you alright, Lieutenant?"

"Yeah...yeah...wonderful... Just a...give me five minutes, okay?"

"...sure."

Right as he leaves, Hank begins to throw up. And _there_ it is. Okay, now that's he's waiting for Hank, it wouldn't hurt to learn more about him. The first thing he went to was Sumo, who was lying on the floor near the TV, petting him. Then, he begins to look around. For one thing, he learns that heavy metal isn't the only thing he listens to, he also listens to jazz. After checking on Hank one more time, not getting a response that's not gagging sound, he looks around more, heading to the kitchen. Once picking the chair back up, he kneels down and picks up the gun. Connor already has a suspicion but he asked anyway.

"What were you doing with the gun?"

"Russian roulette! ...wanted to see how long I could last...must've collapsed before I found out."

Suicidal Tendencies? Connor opens the headspace, spinning it.

"You were lucky, the next shot would have killed you."

Putting the gun back and getting up, he notices something on the table. Walking towards it, he picks up the small photo frame. It was a picture of a little boy he read all too familiar while doing his research on Hank and yet, he analyzes it anyway. Cole Anderson, deceased, born on September 23, 2029, died on October 11, 2035, and the son of Hank Anderson. In 2038, he would have been nine-years-old, just like his Niles... Immediately but gently, Connor puts the photo down from where he got it. And just in time, too. Hank came out, with a coat and the hippy shirt now appears to be cleaner than before. He has a small smile on his face and Connor gives him a quick but gentle smile on his own. Sumo sees his owner, walking up to him.

"Be a good dog, Sumo. I won't be long, now." And with that, the two left the house.

* * *

**DATE NOV 6TH, 2038**

**TIME PM 08:01**

 

Markus, North, Simon, and Josh has finally arrived in the CyberLife warehouses. It's pouring cats and dogs out here, but Markus doesn't seem to mind the rain, in fact, he enjoys it. North was the first to climb up as the rest follows.

"This is crazy...if they catch us, we're dead!" Josh exclaims at Markus.

"What do we do now?" Simon asks.

"We need to find the CyberLife warehouse. That’s where they keep the spare parts and blue blood."

"Follow me," said North as she begins to run. 

Thankfully, there was a lot of shipping containers all around them, making it easier for them to hide if needed. They followed North all the way to the darker area where there's no light. As Markus keeps running, North pulls her arm out, warning him as she moves the two of them back right when two android security guards and a drone passed them.

" _Now, what do we do?_ " Josh asks through their wireless coms.

" _I'll find another way_ ," says North as she quickly looks around and spot the shipping containers and proceed to climb up on it, Simon following as well as the others.

Simon and Josh went to one part of the container as Markus follows North. As the two climbs up another set of the container, Markus can see the CyberLife warehouse, though then again, it really ain't that hard to miss with those big bold letters plastered on it. Markus jumps, tucking and rolling but didn't stop nevertheless, jumping once more through a gap between two containers. Noticing Simon going the other direction, he follows him, ignoring the "where the hell are you going?" from North.

Tucking and rolling once again, he keeps following Simon.

"Markus, that way!" Simon tells him, as he jumps another container waiting for the RK200. As the latter finally jumps after him, landing near him, the two share a determined smile before continuing jumping from one container to another, finally catching up with North and Josh.

" _The warehouse is up ahead. We're almost there_ ," North said.

Markus slides off, grabbing the ledge of the containment ship and jump to the one in front of it, and continues to jump one after the other until he slides to the rest of them waiting.

"CyberLife warehouses...They have everything we’re looking for."

North glares at something at the sky. "First, we have to get rid of that drone."

"Leave it to me," Markus stood up, stepping a little back to finding a way to get it of it.

He begins to pre construct ways of doing it. He can't go to the one where the crane will be getting, it's _way_ too high for him. He also can't just jump on the drone, hoping to grab it, he'll be spotted if he does, not to mention the fall is also a no-no. He can jump on the left containment ship, but he can't jump on the other once again, it's still would be too high...unless he uses the other containment as some boost to grab on to the ledge of the one the crane is getting, but can't outright jump on the damn drone like that, that would be too far, but if he waited just for a few seconds, he can take it down. Finally getting the best scenario, Markus climbs up the containment ship, following every set of segments when finally, he grabbed on to the drone, twisting and pulling on each part of it but also being careful. He can it's working as the lights around begin to flicker and the whirling sound within it is speeding up until Markus finally took it down, carefully landing on the ground, the drone broken.

"You okay?" Simon asks Markus once the others were on ground-level as well.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he replies as Simon pats his back reassuringly.

North looks down at the drone before looking up at him. "Good job, Markus."

"Quick, open up the crates and fill your bags. Take as much as you can."

Markus took out the knife he brought with him, jabbing it between the CyberLife crates, opening it. Pushing it further, he grabs all the blue blood he could that was there. He didn't notice no one was moving until he grabbed the last piece and looked up, finding out why. A GJ500, an android security guard. Nobody moved an inch as he looked at all of them.

"You are trespassing on private property," he makes his way to Markus. "Your presence constitutes a Level 2 infraction. I will notify security."

Shit.

"John!" _Double_ shit. "Goddamn machine... Where is it this time?"

Instantly, Markus went for the android, John, covering his mouth, grabbing him and hiding both of them.

"John?"

Quickly, Markus retracts his skin and attempt to communicate with John.

"I need your help."

"John?"

Gambling on his choices, Markus releases John and waited.

"There you are. What the _hell_ are you doing?"

"I...was inspecting the platform. Everything is in order." Oh, thank _God_.

"Good—then I'm going back to the control station. I'm soaked. Take the drone to maintenance and make a report."

"Understood."

With that, the guard left John and unknowingly the others as well. Markus was the first to step out of the hiding, nodding his thanks to John.

"Let’s finish up and get out of here. Try to find some blue blood. We still don’t have enough," says Simon.

Markus once again jabs the knife between the crates and grabs all the blue blood in there. Once he was finished, he noticed a blue sizable container just above him. Climbing up to check what's inside, he was surprised to see three AP700, in one row, just standing there, emotionless. They don't even seem to notice Markus at all. Markus just stares at them.

"Why aren't you like _us_?" He whispers to them but they don't respond. "Don't you wanna be _free_?"

He thought back to that parked android when he asked her if she knows where Jericho was, and she didn't answer, just emotionless. He thought of John when he was just following orders until Markus communicated with him, somehow freeing him, making him go against the program. Then, he thought of Connor during a time where he was emotionless too until he became more curious about the world. To be frank, he doesn't like to live in a world where Connor, or _any_ other android, are emotionless, only to go with what they're program to do.

"You could join us..."

With that, Markus retracts his skin and grabbed the middle one's hand, seeing his LED whirling in yellow, then looking around in confusion. Now, there's the emotion. He then did the same with the others, all waking up. Markus just looks at them as they look around, then he glances at his plastic gray-white hand, that's hidden beneath his skin color before the skin covers it up... _How_ did he do that? Since _when_ can he do that? With John, that's just a coincident but with the AP700? That's slowly becoming a pattern. He turns back to see North witnessing what he just did, there were many emotions on her face the one showing the most is admiration and respect. Josh and Simon notice what he did as well.

"That’s all we can carry. Let’s go," says Simon.

Markus and North hopped off and begin to walk away when a voice stopped them. It was John.

"Take me with you." All four of them turn to him.

"He's on their side. We can’t trust him," Markus hears North say to him.

"He took a risk for us. We can’t just leave him here," Josh relatiates.

"We can't bring them back with us! It's too dangerous!" Simon also pointed out.

Markus realizes it's all up to him to make a choice. And his choice? The more the merrier.

"They are one of _us_ so they come with us, end of story," Markus states, not caring for Simon and North's disapproval but rather see John's smile and Josh's appreciation.

Before they can go, John spoke once more. "I know where you can find more spare parts."

Involuntarily, Markus glance back at North and Simon with a raised eyebrow that screams " _Now, how about that_ " at them.

"What do you mean?" Simon approaches him.

"The trucks. They’re full of biocomponents. They run on autopilot, but they can be driven manually with a key."

"Where is this key?" Markus asks.

John walks further and points. "Down there, in the control station. There are two human guards. You’ll have to get the key without being noticed."

"This is suicide, Markus. Our bags are full. We got what we came for, let’s go before they catch us."

"This is a truck full of _spare parts_..." North argues back at Simon. "There’d be enough for all of us., we can’t pass this up!"

"And if we get killed, our people will have _nothing_ ," Josh looks at Markus. "We can’t take that chance. It’s too risky!"

Again...it's up to Markus again. They're right, it is risky and dangerous but North is also right, they _need_ the spare parts. He thought back of the woman who died, of that little boy who needs blue blood and biocomponents, the man who doesn't want to _die_ needs the spare parts. Markus took off his bag and gave it to John.

"We need those; I'm getting that key. Wait here. If I’m not back in ten minutes go without me."

"Markus..." Josh warns him.

"I'm coming with you," North says.

"No, I’m going alone." Markus turns back to look at her. "It’s not worth it for both of us to risk losing our lives."

Running towards it, he spots some guard dogs locked up in a crate, barking at them. Going all the way to the far right, he peeks inside, seeing two guards who don't seem to be paying that much attention. There, he spots it, the key. He ignores the door, wanting to be more discreet. He opens the farthest side of the window, carefully opening them and smoothly get inside. Going further he sees something, a gun. He could threaten the guards but he rather not want to bring even more attention to him, let alone let the guard see him. He sneaks around, spotting something. Maybe cause a blackout? It is worth a shot. There was a toolbox open, with a screwdriver. He picks it up and looks at it, thinking, before putting it back. He just needs to grab the key, not cause attention and who knows, the guards might spot the others if they try to check outside.

Looking back, he sees some barrels. Lure the guards outside? It's enough time for him to grab the key and go. He quietly opens the window, jumping out of it. The dogs once again barking at his presence, he taps the barrels just to see how loud it can be. _It's loud enough_ , Markus thought. Looking back from the window for one last time, with all his might he kicks the barrel loud enough he's sure the guards heard it and went back inside just in time for the guard to go and check. Quickly, he grabs the key, pulling it out of its placement. He made his way back to the window he went in, checking to see if the guards were there first before getting out of there and running back to the group. By now, there's already a truck waiting for him. North was the first to notice him.

"Did you get it?" Smiling at her, Markus shows her the key. "Nice."

He opens the door, getting inside and insert the key. Now, they just need to get the hell out of here. He pauses look as the guards until they open up the opening. Markus glances back at North and gives her a grin in which she returns one of her own. They did it, they're getting out of there.

* * *

They made it back to Jericho, four returning and four more who joined.

"A _truckload_!" Simon tells them, grinning. "We stole a whole truckload!"

"We got biocomponents for everybody!" Josh also adds.

North looks back at the RK200. "We couldn’t have done it without Markus."

Everyone is now looking at him. As much as Markus is thankful that this happened, he didn't want it to stop here, stealing from the CyberLife warehouse. Markus just doesn't want to _stop_. This is not how _this_ is going to end. This is not the end, this is only the beginning of...of a revolution.

"I came to Jericho because...here, androids are free," Markus starts. "Free to live in the dark, hoping that no one finds us. Free to die in silence waiting for a change that's _never_ gonna come...

"But I don't want _that_ freedom," he continues, looking up at every single one of them with determination in his eyes. "And I'm not gonna _beg_ for the right to smile, or love, or stand tall... I don't know about you, but there's something inside _me_ —" Markus raised his hand near where a heart should be, emphasizing it from his words through his action. "—that _knows_ , that I am _more_ than what they say.

"I am _alive_ , and they're not gonna take that from me anymore. Our days of slavery are _over_ ," he looks around the room, seeing the other androids listening intently to what he's saying. "What humans don't wanna hear, we will _tell_ them. What they don't wanna give, we _take_. We are people, we are alive, we—are _free_!"

The people of Jericho cheered once he was done speaking. North, Josh, and Simon all looked at Markus almost in a different light. Markus closes his eyes and takes a deep fake breath. Okay, so he's doing this, then. He found Jericho, he got the spare parts, now for reuniting with Connor. But now...he has the weight of the task of freeing his people.

_Okay...okay, Connie, I'm going to do this. Just wait a little longer, okay? And once I'm done, I'm going to find you and we're going to reunite, I promise, I_ swear _...just hold on just a little while longer, okay?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, Markus... MLK much? Malcolm X much? Gandhi much?... Spartacus much? MOSES much?? —Literally my reaction when the speech ended, you have no idea how much I was smiling through that scene, loved it lol.  
> Anyway...this ended in the way I like it, maybe a little too long but I don't mind. Now let's see what to say about this...  
> *Russian Roulette —I thought of Mandi's change of clothes funny and cute at the same time so I just put it in there.  
> —I add more dialogues/changes with Mandi so she wouldn't just be another Amanda and more, you know, "deviant-y".  
> —Connor lending Mandi the umbrella/not letting her get wet is something I find very sweet (think of it like Connor with the coffee and Gavin, still wanting to give it to him even though he was an ass)  
> —If you got the Coraline part I love you lol, just the idea of Nines being just a kid playing the rain is so cute lmao. As you can tell, I want Mandi, Connor, and Nines to have a mentor & mentee/maternal & filial relationship (after all, Connor and Nines never had a mother figure, unless you include Kamski as a SOME figure (to Connor anyway))  
> —I like the thought of Niles and Connor having a talk about the case/picking Hank instead, to show the closeness between them  
> —Connie making sure Nines doesn't swear is cute, fight me lmao  
> —Let my babies be endearing to one another, Niles told him he loves him to remind him, especially since Markus' "death" is still fresh (like it's been a day, dude) for Connor, so it's still in his mind and also just a way for him to tell him he wouldn't leave him. Remember, Nines doesn't like Markus for the fact that he forgot about Connor.  
> —The idea of Connor saying "Oh" to Hank saying "fuckin' android" is funny to me idk. Connor slamming Hank's face against the doorframe is funnier.  
> —So, apparently, Cole would have been 9 if he lived which is sad in it of itself  
> *Spare Parts —"DBH you ain't slick, you didn't think I see the FOLLOW SIMON choice while I was paying attention to North?? North's with Josh, I'm going with Simon" was my thought the first time I played it lol.  
> —Bro, my stress level was 100% every time I have to do something with buttons like the drone and during the nest chase.  
> —The first time I played it, I held John, but the second time I played it I chose to let him go, and I prefer to pick my second time option instead.  
> —I literally freed the three androids, like hell if I'm gonna pick refuse XD I also added more dialogue just to give Markus more assertive/leader-ish, as well as add the part of giving John Markus' bag.  
> —Connor when Markus keeps promising to reunite with him but chose to do other stuff: What the FUCK, bro...  
> Anyway, I think that's all, sorry if the notes were long haha, I hoped you guys like this and actually prefer having chapters joined together. Sorry for any errors and I'll be sure to get the next chapter as fast as I can <3

**Author's Note:**

> Reminder, dialogues will be added and/or taken out for the sake of the story  
> Later!  
> Also, if you're wondering how I got the title, it's from a song called Brother by Matt Corby, something I highly recommend, it's a very soothing song (to me that is).


End file.
